China has amassed more than 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control with India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said while hitting out at China for its ‘bad behaviour’ and threats against the quad countries.
The Foreign Ministers from the Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad group consisting of the US, Japan, India and Australia met in Tokyo on Tuesday in what can be considered as their first in-person talks since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of China’s aggressive military behaviour in the Indo-Pacific, South China Sea and along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
“The Indians are seeing 60,000 Chinese soldiers on their northern border,” US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told ‘The Guy Benson Show’ in an interview on Friday after his return from Tokyo.
“I was with my Foreign Minister counterparts from India, Australia, and Japan – a format that we call the Quad, four big democracies, four powerful economies, four nations, each of whom has real risk associated with the threats imposed attempting to be imposed by the Chinese Communist Party. And they see it in their home countries too,” Pompeo added
Mike Pompeo also met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Tokyo and they underscored the need to work together to advance, peace, prosperity and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe. He described his meeting with Mr Jaishankar as “productive”.
“They see, the people of their (Quad) nations understanding that we all slept on this for too long. For decades, the West allowed the Chinese Communist Party to walk all over us. The previous administration bent a knee, too often allowed China to steal our intellectual properties and the millions of jobs that came along with it. They see that in their country too,” he said in the interview.