Blinken during Indonesia visit, seeks to bolster alliances against China's 'aggressive actions' in Indo-Pacific

Jakarta [Indonesia], December 14 : Amid concern over China's "aggressive actions" in the Indo-Pacific region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday sought to bolster alliances against Beijing to "defend the rules-based order" stating that countries should have the right to "choose their own path".
Outlining US's strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, Blinken who is on a two-day visit to Indonesia said, "We'll work with our allies and partners to defend the rules-based order that we've built together over decades to ensure the region remains open and accessible."
"Let me be clear: the goal of defending the rules-based order is not to keep any country down. Rather, it's to protect the right of all countries to choose their own path, free from coercion and intimidation," Al Jazeera reported Blinken's speech at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.
The US Secretary of State described the Indo-Pacific as the world's most dynamic region and said everyone had a stake in ensuring a status quo that was without coercion and intimidation, in a barely veiled reference to China.
According to Al Jazeera, Blinken insisted that Washington is not trying to force countries to choose between the US and China or seeking conflict with China. But he laid out a litany of complaints about "Beijing's aggressive actions" from "Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia and from the Mekong River to the Pacific Islands".
"Countries across the region want this behaviour to change," he said. "We do too."
He has also said that Washington will continue to play its stabilising role in the Indo-Pacific emphasising that it is the fastest-growing region on the planet.
"What happens in this region in the 21st century will shape the trajectory of the world," said Blinken while delivering remarks on the 'US and Indo-Pacific' in Jakarta today.
Blinken's remarks on the Indo-Pacific comes two days after the Group of Seven (G-7) foreign ministers expressed concerns about Beijing's "coercive" economic policies.
The G-7 foreign ministers had on December 6 held talks with their counterparts from the ASEAN countries for the first time, as well as from Australia, South Korea and India, on the second day of the G-7 gathering, apparently to coordinate with the 10-member ASEAN and three other regional powers over policy on China.
"We have been clear at this meeting this weekend that we are concerned about the coercive economic policies of China," Liz Truss said at a G7 news conference in Liverpool.
China has been accused of claims in the resource-rich South China Sea. Beijing has aggressively pushed its nine-dash line claims in the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea. The other claimants to the SCS islands are Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Further, China has demonstrated an aggressive approach in pressing its territorial claims against its neighbours
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State met Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday and the two leaders discussed how US and Indonesia can work together to preserve security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.