WASHINGTON – The United States will proceed to push again towards Beijing’s “false maritime claims,” stated John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, in response to China’s newly launched 2023 map that has drawn the ire of India, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines.
In an interview with VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara on Friday, Kirby spoke about expectations for President Joe Biden’s upcoming journey to the G20 summit in New Delhi, adopted by a go to to Hanoi, the place the U.S. is anticipated to improve bilateral ties with Vietnam. He additionally previewed Vice President Kamala Harris’ upcoming engagement with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
This transcript has been edited for readability and brevity.
VOA: We are listening to that [Chinese] President Xi Jinping is probably not attending the G20. President Biden stated that he hopes that he’ll nonetheless attend. Is there a way that the president’s upset? Was there a Biden-Xi assembly that’s no longer going to occur?
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator: As far as I do know, there hasn’t been a proper choice made by the [People’s Republic of China]. We’ll definitely depart it to them to speak about his attendance plans. As the president stated, we definitely hope that President Xi would attend.
G20 is a vital discussion board, and this yr there is a concentrate on enhancing financial cooperation all over the world. So clearly, there will probably be a task for the PRC, and we might hope that he’ll make the most of that.
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VOA: China simply launched its annual map that appears to be extra expansive. It’s not simply the nine-dash line, it is now the 10-dash line. How does the administration really feel about this?
Kirby: We have been very, very constant about pushing again on these false maritime claims of the PRC. This map would not change that coverage. But it is not simply what traces they draw on the map. It’s about their coercive habits. It’s about the way in which they intimidate [their] neighbors and a few of our allies and companions within the Indo-Pacific, to attempt to advance these false maritime claims.
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VOA: Do we anticipate the vice chairman to be that ahead leaning as you might have laid out when she visits the area? Last yr she went to Palawan Island. Can we anticipate that form of a pushback this yr?
Kirby: The vice chairman’s very a lot wanting ahead to her participation on the ASEAN summit. She is not going to draw back from speaking about our tasks as a Pacific energy. She is not going to draw back about speaking about how severely we take our safety commitments to our allies and companions all through the area. Five of our seven treaty alliances are within the Indo-Pacific area.
VOA: One of the proposals that the president will carry to New Delhi is to bolster the capability of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank to supply lending for world improvement tasks as an alternative choice to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
There is already a Western push for this. It was initially referred to as Build Back Better World, B3W, after which the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, PGII and now this push to maneuver along with the World Bank and the IMF. Is there a change of technique or maybe a cutting down of ambition right here?
Kirby: Not in any respect. In truth, it is fairly in keeping with every part the president has been saying since he took workplace. The knowledge present that his method to financial prosperity, constructing from the underside up and the center out – Bidenomics – works right here at dwelling. The president believes that that very same method can work globally. One of the methods is thru revitalizing multilateral improvement funding. That’s why he has requested Congress for one more $25 billion to reshape the World Bank. That’s why he has appointed the brand new head of the World Bank.
And it is why the president – as you rightly stated – additionally launched a pair years in the past the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which is already beginning to pay dividends. The PGII will not essentially be on the agenda on the G20. But we’re definitely hoping that we’ll get an opportunity to speak about it.
VOA: So, that is as well as, not instead of the PGII program?
Kirby: The PGII is one thing separate and distinct from what we’re attempting to do when it comes to the World Bank.
I believe it is vital to maintain all this in context. Developing international locations are searching for options to the excessive curiosity mortgage applications that the PRC is placing out. What the president and the G7, G20 leaders needed to place in place are options to that in order that growing international locations who’ve been affected by the warfare in Ukraine can deal with these issues.
VOA: Is the president upset that – not like in G20 Bali – this time across the G20 chair, India, isn’t inviting [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to talk?
Kirby: That’s actually as much as the G20 chair. President Zelenskyy had an opportunity to handle NATO allies in Vilnius not too way back. He definitely has had a number of alternatives to talk with overseas leaders on his personal. We imagine that it is vital that individuals keep targeted on supporting Ukraine to the diploma they will, however so far as an invite, I’d refer you to the Indians.
VOA: Can we get some extra readability on a potential Biden – [Saudi Crown Prince] MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] assembly? Would this be an excellent alternative to ahead the agenda of a Saudi-Israel normalization?
Kirby: The president believes strongly that our strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia is vital. That’s why we proceed to work on that partnership and see it beginning to bear fruit, when it comes to the truce in Yemen.
In attempting to encourage progress in direction of normalization with Israel, there’s been plenty of good work with Saudi Arabia. The president seems ahead to any alternative to attempt to advance that, I simply do not have something on the schedule.
VOA: Our diplomatic sources say that Vietnam is keen on upgrading ties to not only a Strategic Partnership, however to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which might be a very large deal. Can you affirm this?
Kirby: I’m not able to verify. We very a lot worth the rising partnership that we’ve with Vietnam. Some of our pursuits are merging in ways in which 10 to fifteen years in the past you could not even think about.
The Vietnamese are after all involved about PRC actions of their a part of the Indo-Pacific. There’s an terrible lot of shared frequent pursuits right here, and the president’s wanting ahead to discussing how we will advance these pursuits. But I will not get forward of specifics.
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VOA: An op-ed in The Jakarta Post stated that “ASEAN matters little if at all enough for Biden to skip the annual gathering, even though he will be in the neighborhood around that time.” Does ASEAN matter to the U.S. past officers resembling your self repeating statements of ASEAN centrality?
Kirby: Of course, it does. The president hosted a summit right here in Washington, the primary ever for ASEAN, and has engaged with ASEAN leaders on quite a few events in individual and, after all, just about during the last two and a half years. And the vice chairman additionally believes strongly within the vibrancy of ASEAN and in our Indo-Pacific relationships.
The first two overseas leaders that President Biden invited to the White House had been from Japan and South Korea. The first journey that the Secretary of Defense [Lloyd Austin] and Secretary of State [Antony Blinken] took collectively, was to the Indo-Pacific area. The president revitalized the Indo-Pacific Quad. The president was chargeable for placing collectively AUKUS [Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States strategic partnership] which is able to permit us in live performance with the United Kingdom to assist Australia construct a nuclear-powered submarine functionality.
We are wanting ahead to collaborating on this ASEAN summit as a result of ASEAN is a vital discussion board for dialogue and pursuit of those frequent pursuits and shared values, in addition to addressing the challenges that these international locations face. The United States needs to be a part of that dialogue. We have been with ASEAN because the very starting of this administration, and we will definitely be going ahead.