Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

India has its own problems: Biden

China, which has territoria­l disputes with many countries in the strategic Indopacifi­c region, has been vehemently opposing the Quad

- Agencies letters@hindustant­imes.com

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has said that his Chinese counterpar­t Xi Jinping once told him that he was strengthen­ing Quad against China.

China, which has territoria­l disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-pacific region, has been vehemently opposing the Quad alliance since its formation.biden, during a Democratic Party fundraiser event at a private residence in Seattle on Friday, said that he had indicated to Xi that “I was going to pull together the Quad: Australia, India, Japan and the United States. He said, ‘You’re just doing that to affect us.’ I said, ‘No, it’s because we’re trying to put together those folks who have an opportunit­y to work together in the Indo-pacific’”.

“The point being that one of the things that the autocrats fear the most -- and India has its own problems; all those countries have their own problems -- is the notion that somehow we can work together in concert and contrary to what are essentiall­y dictatorsh­ips, which a lot of countries have become, particular­ly not only China but Russia and many other countries...the Philippine­s,” he said.in February, China termed the Quad alliance as a “tool” to contain China’s rise and to maintain American hegemony.“china believes that the so-called Quad group cobbled together by the US, Japan, India and Australia is essentiall­y a tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony. “It aims to stoke confrontat­ion and undermine internatio­nal solidarity and cooperatio­n,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian had said in Beijing in February.during the party fundraiser event, Biden said that when he got elected, Russian president Vladimir Putin thought that he would easily be able to break up the NATO.

“That was part of his objective from the very beginning. And I know I’ve been saying that for eight years, but it was part of his objective,” he said.but the irony of all ironies to this... he got exactly what he did not want, Biden said.the US president said that Putin was looking for further Finlandisa­tion (the process whereby a country is induced to favour, or refrain from opposing, the interests of a more powerful country) of Europe. Instead, he got Finland… wanting to join NATO and Sweden wanting to join NATO. His action is generating exactly the opposite of what he intended. “I’m not suggesting that makes things all that easier. But the point is that we have a circumstan­ce where the Ukrainian people are incredibly brave; they’re incredibly resolved, not just the military that was trained but people in streets,” he said.

 ?? AFP ?? Joe Biden
AFP Joe Biden

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