China must follow rules, will be held accountable, says Biden

Washington, March 26

The United States, working with its partners and allies, is going to hold China "accountable" in the region and also press Beijing to follow the rules on a range of issues, including the South China Sea, President Joe Biden has said.

Addressing his first formal news conference in the White House on Thursday, Biden referred to his recent meeting with leaders of the Quad countries involving India, Australia and Japan and said soon he was going to invite an alliance of democracies to come to Washington DC to “discuss the future”.

Acting tough

We are going to make it clear that we will hold China accountable to follow the rules, whether it relates to the South China Sea or the North China Sea or the agreement made on Taiwan or a whole range of other things. —Joe Biden, US President

“Earlier this month, and apparently got the Chinese attention, that's not why did it, I met with our allies and how we're going to hold China accountable in the region, Australia, India, Japan, the United States, the so-called Quad, because we have to have democracies working together,” he said while answering a question on US-China relations under his watch.

“We are going to make it clear that in order to deal with these things, we are going to hold China accountable to follow the rules, to follow the rules, whether it relates to the South China Sea or the North China Sea or the agreement made on Taiwan or a whole range of other things,” he asserted. The virtual summit on March 12 was attended by President Biden, PM Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga. In a joint statement, the four leaders of the Quad had pledged to strengthen cooperation on the "defining challenges of our time" and said they will continue to prioritise the role of international law in the maritime domain and facilitate collaboration, including in maritime security, to meet challenges to the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Seas. — PTI

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