প্রকাশ: 05/11/2022
The Group of Seven on Friday urged China to abstain from "threats,
coercion, intimidation, or the use of force," while the United States
touted the countries' increasingly aligned approach toward dealing with
Beijing.
A mildly-worded communique,
wrapping up two days of meetings by the foreign ministers of the world's seven
wealthiest democracies, reiterated the importance of peace and stability across
the Taiwan Strait.
But it also expressed an aim for
cooperation with China where possible to tackle global health and climate
challenges.
US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, speaking to reporters after the meeting in the western German town of
Muenster, said G7 countries sought to coordinate responses to China's
increasingly assertive global posture, though the communique did not make a
reference to a common goal.
"In our discussions here,
we're also clear eyed about the need to align our approach to the PRC (People's
Republic of China) in the face of growing coercion, and push back together
against Beijing's market-distorting policies and practices, which hurt workers
and industries in all of our countries," Blinken said.
The gathering coincided with a
one-day visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Beijing to meet Chinese
leader Xi Jinping, the first such trip by a G7 leader to China since the
Covid-19 pandemic.
There Scholz pressed Xi to
prevail on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine, saying Beijing had a
responsibility as a major power to do so.
His visit had also fuelled
concern that Germany would continue to prioritize economic relations with its
largest trading partner over security considerations, and risk divisions among
Western allies that have sought to adopt a tougher stance towards China in
recent years.
But Blinken said Washington
strongly supported the reasons Scholz had laid out for his trip.
"That includes, by the way,
encouraging President Xi to press President Putin on never using a nuclear
weapon of any kind," Blinken said.
Ukraine's Western allies have
accused Russia of threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, though Moscow
denies doing so.
Blinken added that the
convergence on China among G7 countries - including Germany - was
"increasingly strong and increasingly clear."
The G7 said in the communique
that they remained "seriously concerned about the situation in and around
the East and South China Seas" after China earlier this year staged war
games near self-governed Taiwan.
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as
its own territory, has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under
its control.
"We remind China of the
need... to abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation, or the use of
force," the communique said. "We strongly oppose any unilateral
attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion."
Moreover, the G7 said they would
continue to raise concerns with China on its reported human rights violations
and abuses, including in Xinjiang and Tibet, and on the "continued erosion
of Hong Kong's rights, freedoms and autonomy".
A US State Department official
told reporters earlier on condition of anonymity that China's Communist Party
Congress last month, where Xi cemented his grip on power, had increased G7
countries' recognition of Xi's domestic and global ambitions and the need for a
coordinated response.
"That's something that I
think will be a focus of this group as we head into Japan's presidency next
year," the official noted, referring to Japan taking over the G7's
rotating presidency from Germany at the start of next year.
Sino-Japanese relations have long
been plagued by a dispute over a group of tiny uninhabited East China Sea
islets, a legacy of Japan's World War Two aggression and regional rivalry.
On Friday Japan's Sankei
newspaper reported that the Japanese and Chinese governments had started
planning a meeting between Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for
mid-November.
European Union foreign policy
chief Josep Borrell cautioned earlier in the day that China should not be put
in the same category as Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February.
"It is clear that China
is... becoming much more assertive, much more on a self-reliant course,"
Borrell told reporters.
"But for the time being,
many member states have a strong economic relationship with China, and I don't
think we can put China and Russia on the same level."
The G7 said in their statement
that they aimed for "constructive cooperation with China, where possible
and in our interest" on global issues such as health and climate change.
- Reuters
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