In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jashankar criticized China’s economic coercion against Australia, saying the progress and prosperity of the past 80 years was “ruled by rules, not politically influenced”. ” the result of the trading system.

Trade relations with China, Australia’s largest trading partner, have fallen sharply since Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus in early 2020. Beijing retaliated with trade restrictions, including imposing high tariffs on Australian barley and wine and slowing coal shipments.

Asked by the paper whether Beijing’s actions against Canberra constituted economic coercion, Jashankar said: “You know this – if it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck.”

The Chinese government has denied using trade coercion against Australia and other countries, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian insisting on February 8 that China “always abides by WTO rules”.

Jaishankar traveled to Melbourne, Australia, last week for a meeting of the Quartet, a regional partnership of India, Japan, Australia and the United States to help democracies coordinate their response to China’s rise.

Jaishankar said the quartet agreed that “politics should never be conducted through coercion at any time”.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged the quartet to take a tougher stance on the growing hostility of the Chinese Communist Party in the region at the meeting on Friday, but added that he did not believe war with Beijing was inevitable. Jaishankar said the meeting discussed the conflict between India and China over their shared border.

The four-way discussion comes as Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan travels to India to meet with his counterparts on a free trade agreement between the two countries. Jaishankar told the newspaper that “there should be more trade and investment between Australia and India”.

The pandemic has shown that, in some cases, trade is too concentrated among a few partners, he said.

Complete News Source : Business Standard