Two events in September signaled that the West and its allies began a new phase in attempts to contain China’s economic and military might: the announcement of the Aukus military agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia; and the first face-to-face summit of the Quad, a diplomatic and security debate group that brings together the US, Australians, Japan and India.
While leaders of the countries involved said the two initiatives were not a response to China, public comments made it clear that Beijing was a central concern of the talks.
“The Indo-Pacific is a region that we want to be free from coercion at all times, where the sovereign rights of all nations are respected and where disputes are resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law,” said the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. China has made public its dissatisfaction, calling the Aukus “seriously undermine regional peace and stability” and decreeing that the Quad is “doomed to fail.”
At least in the speech, US President Joe Biden’s emphasis on partnerships clashes with his predecessor’s stance. Donald Trump made his antipathy to multilateral agreements clear, citing a preference for bilateral treaties, and early in his term, in January 2017, he withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement with 11 other countries whose objective was precisely stand up to China. However, in the same year, Trump agreed to reactivate the Quad, whose dialogues had started when George W. Bush (2001-2009) was the American president.
Despite stressing the need for dialogue, Biden’s search for partnerships has been criticized for leaving the European Union aside, which generated a big reaction when the Aukus was announced: France publicly complained about the agreement because it led to the cancellation of a contract billionaire to buy French submarines with diesel and electric propulsion for Australia – through Aukus, Australians will have nuclear-powered submarines.
The French have hinted that they may even hamper negotiations for a free trade agreement between the European Union and Australia and New Zealand, which the European Commission has been negotiating since 2018.
Shortly after the announcement of the Aukus, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that, despite promises to renew ties with Europe, Biden had already created a fair skirt with his allies on the continent by maintaining Trump’s plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Aukus increased distrust. To contain China, Europeans need to be called to the table, Michel argued.
“If Americans think that China is the main threat to the world, it is very strange, in my opinion, that the United States and other countries make the choice to weaken the transatlantic alliance, instead of strengthening it. It is very strange to leave Europe out of the game in the Indo-Pacific region”, he declared.
The search for partnerships to contain China’s economic and military advance extends to Latin America. Last week, Biden’s deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh visited Colombia, Ecuador and Panama to discuss infrastructure investments to neutralize China’s influence in the region. For this purpose, it is necessary to race against time: Uruguay is negotiating a free trade agreement with the Chinese outside Mercosur.