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Quad countries make thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s actions in SCS

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The leaders of the Quad group—Australia, India, Japan and the United States—delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s behavior at a summit in Hiroshima.

US President Joe Biden and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain.”

“We strongly oppose destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the statement said, using diplomatic language that appeared to refer to China’s economic tactics to gain leverage over poorer countries and also its military expansion in the Pacific.

“We express serious concern at the militarization of disputed features, the dangerous use of coastguard and maritime militia vessels, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities,” the statement added, clearly referring to Chinese construction of bases on former offshore reefs and harassment of non-Chinese vessels in disputed waters.

The Quad leaders held their meeting while already gathered in Hiroshima for a Group of 7 summit.

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had been meant to host Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Sydney next week. However, Biden pulled out, saying he had to return to Washington from Japan on Sunday to negotiate with Republican opponents on the US debt ceiling.

Biden apologized for forcing the change in plans and has invited Albanese to make a state visit to the White House.

In their statement, they stressed the Quad’s support for infrastructure improvements across the vast Asia-Pacific region, while saying, in another apparent dig at China, that they wanted to assist such investments but would “not impose unsustainable debt burdens” on recipients of assistance.

China, for its part, expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with a communique issued by G7 leaders that took aim at Beijing on issues including the South China Sea, human rights and alleged interference in their democracies.

The bloc issued a statement calling on China “not to conduct interference activities” and expressed concerns about alleged human rights abuses in China, particularly in the far-western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

They also said G7 countries were “gravely concerned” about territorial disputes in the South China Sea, indirectly accusing China of “coercion.”

Beijing was also urged by the G7 to use its influence to put pressure on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.

But China’s foreign ministry hit back on Saturday evening, saying the G7’s “approach has no international credibility whatsoever.”

“The G7 insisted on manipulating China-related issues, smearing and attacking China,” a spokesman for the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition and has lodged an official protest with Japan, the host country of the summit, as well as other relevant parties.” AFP

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