Will Biden’s ‘little Nato’ G7 unity push cause an ‘economic iron curtain’ to fall over US-China relations?

The US president must navigate a delicate balance between countering China’s economic coercion and sowing more division, according to observers

Washington risks earning further ire for ‘inciting bloc confrontation’ – accelerating decoupling and driving China closer to Russia, they say

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US President Joe Biden will attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:30am, 17 May 2023Updated: 11:23am, 17 May 2023

US President Joe Biden is expected to emphasise unity among Group of Seven countries during his visit to the Asia-Pacific, and highlight Washington’s dedication to the region amid escalating tensions with China and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, analysts said.

Biden is attending a G7 summit this Friday in Japan’s Hiroshima, where he will deepen ties with long-time allies. He had then planned to travel to Papua New Guinea as the first sitting US president to visit the tiny island state and head to Sydney for a meeting with leaders of the Quad – but late on Tuesday scrapped the latter two stops in favour of returning to the US to negotiate with Republicans over raising the US debt ceiling.

While seeking to reassure partners at the G7 summit, Biden must navigate a delicate balance between countering China’s economic coercion and avoiding further division among US allies, observers said.

Jacob Stokes, senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security’s Indo-Pacific Security Programme, said the aim of Biden’s trip was to convey the message that the US was actively leading a coalition of like-minded allies and partners seeking to strengthen the rules-based international order in the region.

From left: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo for a Quad leaders’ summit last year. Photo: AP

“That coalition aims to do so both by deterring coercion and aggression from China, and by offering alternatives for solving key challenges facing the region and the world,” he said.