Blinken tells Quad partners confrontation with China ‘not inevitable’

The US Secretary of State and his counterparts from Australia, Japan and India pledged to cooperate in the Indo-Pacific and work on Covid-19 and climate change

Washington also announced that it will host the 2023 Apec meeting to ‘advance fair trade and open investments in the region’

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(From left) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at the Quad meeting in Melbourne on Friday. Photo: AP

Published: 3:09pm, 11 Feb 2022Updated: 3:14pm, 11 Feb 2022

Confrontation with Beijing is not inevitable, but the United States must stand up with its allies for a rules-based system threatened by Chinese aggression, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Blinken was speaking shortly before a meeting with the foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan. The four nations form the so-called “Quad,” a bloc of Indo-Pacific democracies created to counter China’s regional influence.

Asked by a reporter if a confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific was inevitable, Blinken replied: “Nothing is inevitable.”

“I think we share concerns that in recent years China has been acting more aggressively at home and more aggressively in the region and indeed potentially beyond,” Blinken said.

The Quad partners are united by an “affirmative vision for what the future can bring” and a “commitment to defend the rules-based system that we have spent tremendous time and effort building,” he added.