TOKYO (API) – President Joe Biden told fellow Indo-Pacific leaders who attended the four-nation summit on Tuesday that they were traveling “a dark time in our shared history” because of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine. Much effort to prevent Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
“It’s more than a European issue.
Although the president did not directly call on any country, part of his message seemed to point to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is at odds over how to respond to the Russian invasion..
Unlike other Quad states and almost all other US allies, India has not imposed sanctions or condemned Russia.
As Modi sits nearby, Biden said he has a shared responsibility to the world to assist the Ukrainian opposition to Russia’s occupation..
“We are leading a dark hour in our shared history,” he said. “Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine has provoked a humanitarian catastrophe and innocent civilians have been killed on the streets and millions of refugees have been internally displaced and deported.”
“The world has to deal with it, we are,” he said.
Later, in a post-meeting meeting with Modi, Biden told reporters that he had discussed Russia’s occupation of Ukraine and its “impact on the world order as a whole.” Biden said the United States and India would continue to consult “on how to mitigate these negative effects.”
But in a post-summit joint statement by the Quad leaders, Russia was not mentioned, reflecting India’s relationship with Moscow.
In his comments, Modi made no mention of the war in Ukraine, instead ticking off many of the trade and investment plans he discussed with the president.
The White House has praised several Pacific nations, including Japan, Singapore and South Korea, for providing humanitarian and military assistance to Kyiv for accelerating its offensive against Russia with tough sanctions and export sanctions.
For many major Asian powers, the invasion is seen as an important moment for the world by a strong response to Russia, and China should not attempt to seize competing territory through military action.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, while focusing on Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, told other leaders: “We can not allow this to happen in the Indo – Pacific region.”
The White House is disappointed by the silence of India, the world’s largest democracy.
Biden urged Modi not to rush into buying Russian oil because the United States and other allies want to squeeze Moscow’s energy revenues. The Indian prime minister has made no public pledge to pull out of Russian oil, and Biden has publicly described India as “slightly trembling”.
Faced with Western pressure, India has condemned civilian casualties in Ukraine and called for an immediate end to the war. Nevertheless, it has exacerbated the war caused by the war that caused global food shortages by banning wheat exports at a time when some parts of the world are at risk of starvation. The Indian Prime Minister did not mention Russia’s war against Ukraine in his public comments at the summit.
Biden has been presenting his argument to Modi for several weeks.
The two talked about the Russian invasion during a meeting of the Virtual Quad leaders in March, and last month Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held a short video conversation when they met with their Indian counterparts in Washington.
“So this is not going to be a new conversation,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said before the summit. “This is a continuation of the conversation they have already had about how we see the picture in Ukraine and the implications of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine around the world.”
Although Biden and Modi can avoid a public confrontation over how to respond to Russia’s aggression, Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the center, said the issue remains a key issue because the United States and its allies want to intensify pressure on Putin. Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
George W.. Green, a senior National Security Council aide during the Bush administration, said: “It is clear that the Biden administration is not looking into the issue with India, and that most of these difficult conversations will be personal.
The summit came on the final day of Biden’s five – day trip to Japan and South Korea, Biden’s first trip to Asia.
It also marked the first moment of the new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the world stage. He left for Tokyo on Monday after the new prime minister took office. The center-left Labor Party defeated Prime Minister Scott Morrison over the weekend, ending a nine-year rule of a conservative leader.
Biden welcomed Modi and Kishida Albanese to the club and expressed amazement at his determination to join the informal security coalition soon after taking office.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Biden, who was a bit worn out from his own trip, told Albanese. During the meeting, the US President joked that it was okay for the new Prime Minister to fall asleep.
Biden was to meet Albans separately Then Tuesday. The four-way alliance has become increasingly relevant as Biden moves to focus more on the region and adjust to US foreign policy to counter China’s rise as an economic and security force. He held bilateral talks with Kishida, who is hosting the summit on Monday.
Albanese told his fellow Quad leaders that the group is committed to maintaining an independent and open Indo-Pacific.
“We have changed the government in Australia, but Australia’s commitment to the quad has not changed and will not change,” Albanese said.
Biden’s blunt statement on Monday was that the United States would intervene militarily against the Quad leaders’ speeches. If China invades Taiwan, the burden of defending Taiwan will be “even stronger” after Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. The White House insists that Biden’s extraordinarily strong views on Taiwan have not changed US policy toward a sovereign island that China claims as its own.
When asked by reporters at the summit on Tuesday, Biden simply replied, “No.”
Some moderate initiatives have been announced by the Quad leaders, including a new initiative to provide Covit-19 vaccines for children in high demand and a program to help countries improve the conservation and environmental awareness of their regional waters.
The quartet last year promised to deliver 1.2 billion vaccine doses worldwide. So far, the team has delivered about 257 million doses, according to Biden management.
___
Associated Press writers Jack Miller in Washington, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to the reporting.
