US eyes counter-China strikes in Southeast Asia

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting Thailand because the Biden administration strikes to point out its dedication to Southeast Asia within the face of a relentless push for affect within the area from China.

Blinken was assembly with senior Thai officers and democracy activists from neighboring Myanmar on Sunday in Bangkok. He signed an settlement with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai increasing the US -Thailand “Strategic Alliance and Partnership.”

Blinken got here to Thailand after attending a world convention in Bali, Indonesia, the place he additionally raised considerations about China’s rising assertiveness in talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Like its predecessors, the Biden administration has watched China’s fast progress warily and sought to carry it to worldwide requirements with out vital success. Blinken stated Saturday that China’s help for Russia in its warfare in Ukraine poses a risk to the rules-based order and complicates already tense relations between Washington and Beijing.

But China’s aggressive push into its Southeast Asian neighbors and sustaining a sturdy regional US presence are on the high of Blinken’s agenda in Thailand, based on American officers.

They additionally say Blinken will provide help and encouragement to Myanmar dissidents who’ve been compelled to flee the nation for the reason that army seized energy from the elected authorities on Feb. 1, 2021.

The US and like-minded democracies are attempting to discourage growing Southeast Asian nations from getting into large-scale infrastructure and improvement initiatives with China except they’re confirmed economically possible, structurally sound and environmentally protected.“What we’re about is not asking countries to choose but giving them a choice when it comes to things like investment and infrastructure, development assistance, et cetera,” Blinken stated in Bali.“There is on one level plenty of room for everyone to do that because the needs are immense,” he stated. “But what we want to make sure is that we’re engaged in a race to the top — that is, we do things to the highest standards — not a race to the bottom where we do things to the lowest standards.”

US officers from a number of administrations have criticized China for exploiting smaller nations by luring them into unfair or misleading agreements. “My hope would be that if, as China continues to engage itself in all of these efforts that it engages in a race to the top, that it raise its game,” Blinken stated. “That would actually benefit everyone.”