Riyaz ul Khaliq
14 February 2025•Update: 14 February 2025
ISTANBUL
Beijing on Friday urged the US and India to avoid “using" China as a “talking point” to “incite” bloc confrontation, state media reported.
“In developing relations and conducting cooperation between nations, it is important not to use China as a talking point, nor should it be an opportunity to incite group politics and bloc confrontation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing.
The statement came after US President Donald Trump hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington for summit-level talks on Thursday.
Washington will increase military supplies to India, Trump said, adding that the US will also provide India with F-35 stealth fighter jets.
Following Trump's remarks, Guo said: “The Asia-Pacific region is a hub for peaceful development, not a chessboard for geopolitical maneuvering.”
“Forming exclusive circles and engaging in group politics will not bring security and will only harm regional and global peace and stability, he added.
A joint statement, released after the Trump-Modi meeting, said Washington and New Delhi launched the initiative US-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century.
Under the new initiative, the two sides pledged to “elevate military cooperation” across all domains -- air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace -- and also committed to “break new ground to support and sustain the overseas deployments of the US and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific” region.
It also includes "enhanced logistics and intelligence sharing, as well as arrangements to improve force mobility for joint humanitarian and disaster relief operations along with other exchanges and security cooperation engagements,” the joint statement said.
India is part of the US-led Quad, a loose security alliance, which includes Japan and Australia under Washington’s wider policy on Asia-Pacific, which it refers to as the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s increasing economic and military influence in the region.
