On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ahead of an in-person meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7).
At a joint press conference, Blinken and Raab discussed the need to rally the G7 countries against China and Russia. “We’ll talk about threats to the international rules-based order and to democratic values and human rights,” Blinken said of the G7 meetings that are happening over the next few days.
Blinken and other US officials often claim China is a threat to the so-called “rules-based order.” While the US is clearly following a policy of containment with Beijing, Blinken claims that is not the case. He said the Biden administration’s goal is not to “contain China or to hold China down” but to “uphold the international rules-based order.”
Blinken made similar comments in an interview on Sunday. He told 60 Minutes that China is the only country that has “the military, economic, diplomatic capacity to undermine or challenge the rules-based order.” He also said China has been acting more “aggressively” in recent years.
To face China, the Biden administration is seeking the cooperation of its allies, and they have taken action against Beijing together. Blinken mentioned that the UK joined the US, EU, and Canada in sanctioning Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The G7 consists of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. For this year’s summit, the G7 invited guests South Korea, India, Australia, and South Africa. The focus on inviting non-G7 countries largely from Asia shows the priority the group has on countering Beijing.
Raab called the G7 and its guests a cluster of “like-minded countries” that is needed to protect what he called the “multilateral system.”
The diplomats also discussed Russia and the recent tensions over Ukraine. “I also want to thank the United Kingdom for joining us in holding Russia to account for its reckless and aggressive actions. We have reaffirmed our unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, which I’ll be visiting later this week,” Blinken said.
Both the US and UK have sanctioned Russian officials in recent weeks. Blinken said he welcomes the UK’s “recent announcement on the extension of Global Magnitsky sanctions to combat Russian human rights abuses.”
Sounds like the idea is to squeeze Russia until they beg to be allowed to re-join the G7 and then make it a defacto anti-China economic organization.
I doubt Russia will fall for that.
Russia doesn’t care any more and they and China will do just fine being left out.
The problems is — they will not be left alone. But hounded, accused of any inanity as military economy is all that is left in the West, unless some REAL reset happens to wean them of financial drugs.
We are all addicts. The masters demand more money, and if we do not fork it over, they can demonstrate what it will feel like to go through withdrawal pains.
And the only real money and rich resources are now hard to get.
But no problem. Just saber rattling is good enough for now — it generates money to loan sharks,
The Iran deal taught us agreements with the west are not worth the paper they are written on. Russia and China are simply the first countries that are making plans for the new multilateral world of the future. The EU are idiots if they fight the inevitable.
It is also a testament to the entire Western-centric press that NEVER asked what is “rules based international order”. What are those rules? Where are they written? Who promulgated them, and who agreed to them?
He is clearly not talking about the international law, as US is claiming to follow them only when pointing finger at someone. But never abides by the law when an obstacle to our illegal actions.
The first glaring one is our often cited commitment to freedom of navigation.
How can we have anything to say on the subject when the international governing convention on the laws of the seas — UNCLOS — US does not recognize! US and Israel, among few others, are not signatories. But we act like we own all oceans, and meddle in all maritime disputes, Even though UNCLOS clearly stipulates that non-signatories have NO standing in bilateral disputed among signatories.
Which did not prevent us to claim with straight face that an opinion we procured from Hague Court of Arbitration—ruled in favor of Philippines! Being ARBITRATION court, it had no business to rule in the absence of both parties requesting arbitration. Western “international” courts have also lost much of their credibility.
The attempt to neutralize Russia by being invited to form a G8 failed, when the latter figured out what was afoot.
russia The rules based orders where written by the US with all the usual suspects bowing down to the US , China / Russia will never bend the knee to the Americans , they don`t have to the East is riseing and the West is failing , so the only option left is for the US to bring together grand coalition to try and contain China / Russia , IMO it is doomed to failure.
The problem for many Asian tigers is dependency on US dollar. And now that inflation is rising they are feeling the effects. South Korea, if feeling it already. It remains to be seen what happens in Japan — but Singapore and Taiwan are guaranteed to take a hit.
Many things remain to be shaken out of this codependency. It is hard to asses what will happen to debtor nations. Exports have hit everyone badly — their earnings are in trouble. This may be helpful to China as their terms in trade will be reasonable, no need for dollar earnings. Russia at present has less then 25% of its FOREX reserves in dollars and trade in local currencies is on the rise. China and Russia still have trade in Euros. What may keep Euro up — let us see what happens.