Joe Biden Claims Xi Jinping Accused US Of Strengthening Quad To ‘affect China’

In a major development, US President Joe Biden on Friday said that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping once accused him of strengthening Quad against China. Speaking at a party fundraiser event at a private residence in Seattle, Biden revealed that the Chinese President was dismissive of the joining hands of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States for Quad. The US President went on to mention that the Chinese leadership, like many others in the world, are scared of other countries uniting.

“I indicated to Xi Jinping that I was going to pull together the Quad: Australia, India, Japan, and the United States. He said, ‘You’re just doing that to affect us’,” Biden said on Friday. He further added that he explained the Quad’s aim to the Chinese President.

“I said, ‘No, it’s because we’re trying to put together those folks who have an opportunity to work together in the Indo-Pacific’,” the US President said at the party.

Furthermore, he went on to add that countries fear about other nations uniting despite having problems of their own. “The point being that one of the things that the autocrats fear the most — and India has its own problems; all those countries have their own problems — is the notion that somehow we can work together in concert and contrary to what are essentially dictatorships, which a lot of countries have become, particularly not only China but Russia and many other countries… the Philippines,” he said.

Biden, during his speech, went on to claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin was looking to break up NATO, however, was failing at it as more countries decided to join the group.

Biden’s revelation of Xi Jinping’s accusation over Quad comes amid increasing friction between the two countries over the Russia-Ukraine war. China has been repeatedly denouncing the West’s coordinated sanctions imposed on Russia to punish it for the brutal invasion of Ukraine.

US officials, meanwhile, accused Beijing of expressing openness about providing Russia with requested military and financial assistance, as well as deflecting from condemning the war.

Beijing accused the US, UK, Canada, EU and the allied nations of unilaterally trying to cripple Russia’s economy instead of finding a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing conflict. Moscow, meanwhile acknowledged Beijing’s support as its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country’s cooperation with Beijing will only “get stronger” in the face of Western sanctions threats.

The Xi Jinping administration, a staunch ally of Russia also condemned the international community for outpouring solidarity for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and sending military weapons and flaring the war in Ukraine. 

(With PTI inputs) Image: AP