U.S Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. (Image via Bangkok Post)

Seeking alliance, Pompeo uses Quad meeting to slam China

On Tuesday, U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Japan for a meeting with Japan, India, and Australia, known as the "Quad Group". Pompeo's attendance also aimed to gather support from the U.S's closest allies in Asia to tackle China's growing regional assertiveness. Coinciding with the heating tension with China, the visit was Pompeo's first in more than a year, due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Supposedly also visiting Mongolia and South Korea (S. Korea), Pompeo canceled his trip due to the news that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, had contracted COVID-19.

Speaking before the start of the meeting of the four nations' foreign ministers grouping, Pompeo directly called out Beijing's Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The action was in contrast to his three counterparts, avoiding calling out China like that. Moreover, it was a taboo for Washington's allies to call for a united front against Beijing as they are reliant on China for trade.

Pompeo called for a united front against CCP's exploitation, corruption, and coercion while mentioning regions under dispute with China such as the South and East China Seas, Mekong, Himalayas, and Taiwan Strait. Moreover, he also blamed CCP for worsening the COVID-19 breakout.

China sees and has denounced that the Quad as an attempt to halt its development because it is evident that the Quad Group supports the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" regional initiative. Moreover, Pompeo also stated to the public broadcaster, NHK, the possibility that the Quad might increase in number in order to build a true security network, at an appropriate time. He added that it was important to share the picture of the challenge to ASEAN.

Contradicting Pompeo, analysts said that the "more than Quad" group Pompeo was referring to would never happen because countries in the Indo-Pacific region need to balance their relationship with China. Nonetheless, Quad Group might serve as a "warning" to China and play to its fears that the group might one day act like what NATO did in Europe to contain and break the Soviet Union.

Source: https://bit.ly/3iwuvKg