Joe Biden upholds free, open Indo-Pacific at virtual meet with Xi Jinping

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 16

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning held a three-hour virtual meeting to manage competition responsibly, with Taiwan as the top focus.

Keep off conflict

It is to ensure the competition does not veer into conflict, either intended or unintended. — Joe Biden, US President

Don’t play with fire

Such (Taiwan) moves are dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt. — Xi Jinping, Chinese President

However, Biden also discussed the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific, and “communicated the continued determination” of the US to uphold its commitments in the region. Biden reiterated the importance of freedom of navigation and safe overflight to the region’s prosperity, said a White House readout of the meeting.

India is part of the US-led Quad grouping that is putting its economic and military muscle in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is also interpreted as an exercise to contain China. Biden’s observations indicate that Washington will not be walking back from its Quad commitments even as it tries to tamp down on tensions with China.

On the other hand, of concern to India will be Xi Jinping’s indirect offer to Biden to cooperate in their rival visions of modern, world-wide infrastructure encompassing even the poorer countries. “We hope the reverse is also true,” said Xi while stating that all global initiatives proposed by China are open to the US. India has signed on to the Biden’s “Built Back Better World” (B3W) while China is pressing ahead with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is opposed by India.

But it was Taiwan that gathered all the attention though Xi made a lengthy speech on a number of subjects. “Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt,” Xi cautioned Biden while hoping that the latter will demonstrate political leadership and “steer America’s China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism.”

Xi also criticised Biden’s “Summit of Democracies” next month to which India has also been invited.

“Democracy is not mass produced with a uniform model or configuration for countries around the world. Whether a country is democratic or not should be left to its own people to decide. Dismissing forms of democracy that are different from one’s own is in itself undemocratic,” he said.

However, Xi’s comeback on Biden’s criticism of the Chinese strong-arm tactics in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong was below par. “But we oppose using human rights to meddle in other countries’ internal affairs,” he said on this issue. “It seems to me our responsibility is to ensure that our competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended,” said Biden during his opening remarks.

Besides Taiwan and Indo-Pacific, the two leaders also discussed North Korea, Afghanistan, and Iran. “Finally, they discussed ways for the two sides to continue discussions on a number of areas, with President Biden underscoring the importance of substantive and concrete conversations,” said the White House readout.