The United States asks China to improve relations with Australia

A senior US official said today (March 16) that the Biden administration has informed China that normalization of relations with Australia is a prerequisite for Washington to take major steps to improve Sino-US relations.

According to a report quoted by Reuters in the Sydney Morning Herald, the White House National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator, Kurt Campbell, said in an interview that every time US and Chinese officials met, they would mention China’s economic coercion against Australia.

US Secretary of State Blincoln will meet in Alaska the day after tomorrow with Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. This is the first high-level face-to-face contact between China and the United States since the Biden administration took office.

Campbell pointed out in an interview published today, we have made it clear that while a close ally is under some form of economic coercion, the United States does not intend to improve bilateral relations, nor does it intend to deal with it separately.

Campbell said that Biden told Australian Prime Minister Morrison at a meeting of leaders of the QUAD Group last Friday that "on this issue, our position is unanimous.

The group also includes Japan and India.