Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States will share any surplus vaccine “with the rest of the world.”
Photographer: Oliver Contreras / The New York Times / Bloomberg
Photographer: Oliver Contreras / The New York Times / Bloomberg
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As President Joe Biden tries to strengthen ties with Asian allies, he reshapes the message to avoid scaring America. intentions when it comes to China.
Australia, Japan and India are worried about Beijing’s economic and military growth, and the first meeting of the leaders of the group known as Quad on Friday will be a demonstration of unity against Beijing. Even so, they are cautious about being lured by the US into a purely anti-Chinese bloc, especially given the trade ties each has with the world’s second-largest economy.
So the new US administration is calibrating its access to Quad to highlight the opportunity to work collectively on a variety of broader issues, including combating the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
The White House, led by Donald Trump, avoided cooperation in trade and the environment and focused on China’s direct confrontation with tariffs, sanctions and an intensification of the military presence in the Pacific. While Biden is likely to continue a hard line on Beijing, seen by his move to Beijing bans the export of 5G components to Huawei Technologies Co., the administration is trying to avoid the perception that it is only interested in other countries in the region for their help in this regard.
It happens when the US begins a series of diplomatic engagements with Asia, including the virtual Quad meeting. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are also traveling to North Asia early next week to reassure Japan and South Korea of long-term security agreements before Austin enters India.
These talks are likely to set the tone for a meeting next week between top diplomats in America and China – the highest-level commitment since Biden took office.
In addition, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga plans to visit the United States in the first half of April and organize what is expected to be the first face-to-face summit with a foreign leader for Biden, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters on Friday. Tokyo.
A senior official in India’s foreign ministry said Quad members would discuss a joint funding plan to increase production capacity for India’s Covid-19 vaccine, including photos that could work against newer strains of the virus.
The official did not provide further details, as talks are at a preliminary stage, but the aim would be to better share supplies between Quad nations and provide a counterpoint to China’s own efforts in vaccine diplomacy in the region. It would reflect Biden’s new the national security framework, which promised to work with the Allies as a “common front”.
“A vaccine initiative could show that this is a positive contribution to the region,” said Tanvi Madan, a senior senior at the Brookings Institution. “It’s not just about containing China, it’s about added value that will benefit a number of countries and show what the combined capabilities can do.”
Biden said Wednesday that the United States would share any surplus vaccine “with the rest of the world.”
The White House says the administration hopes to use Friday’s talks to explore several areas of potential co-operation. However, Biden’s team left little doubt that the meeting was intended as a signal to China.
“That President Biden has made this one of his first multilateral commitments speaks to the importance we attach to close cooperation with our Allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
For Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the leader of China’s most dependent economy, the summit is all the more important as China has punished its nation with trade retaliation after calling for an independent investigation into the origins of the pandemic. Morrison told reporters that the meeting “will now see the Quad move to a whole new level, which Australia has been advocating for many years.”
Limits of cooperation
But it can also provide insight into the challenges the Biden administration will face in trying to bring allies to the same page on non-economic issues. Even with swift border disputes in the Himalayas and concerns about China’s modernizing armed forces, India has been reluctant to make the Quad a military group, while Australia remains hesitant to risk its already severed economic ties with China.
“There will always be overlaps of interests and areas of mutual concern, and the Quad can focus on access to vaccines or infrastructure financing in Southeast Asia as examples of this,” said Natasha Kassam, a former Australian diplomat who is the director of the public Lowy Institute program of opinion and foreign policy. “But on more thorny security issues, especially those directly related to China, it’s hard to imagine that the four will reach common ground.”
Aman Thakker, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says caution may fade as China flexes its muscles in the region. Border tensions between China and India almost spilled over into a direct conflict last year, for example.
For now, Quad leaders will focus on other issues, he said Ryan Hass, a colleague from Brookings, who previously oversaw China’s affairs at the US National Security Council.
“Implicit in the structure of the agenda will be the recognition that the US and others will enjoy greater attraction and influence by providing solutions to problems than by presenting opposition to China,” he said. “If the coordinated efforts of the Quad countries encourage China to step up its efforts to address regional challenges, all is well.”
– With the assistance of Jason Scott and Jon Herskovitz
(Updates to the Suga and Biden summit plan in the seventh paragraph.)