White House: US Seeks ‘Kind of Coexistence’ With China, Not Indo-Pacific Domination

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States seeks coexistence with China in the Indo-Pacific and not domination and primacy in the region, White House National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell said on Thursday.

"What I hear a lot of is sustaining a system of partners and friends, working in concert with other countries. I do not believe this is about American domination. In fact, I believe ultimately what the United States seeks is a kind of co-existence with China, with an understanding of China's critical and important role," Campbell said during a conversation on US-China relations with the Carnegie Endowment.

The United States needs to compete across a number of arenas with China while maintaining positive and productive discussions with them at the same time, Campbell added.

The United States, China and the other permanent members of the UN Security Council put out a joint statement earlier this week on avoiding nuclear war and an arms race in what UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid called "the right message to the entire planet."

However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also recently rejected the validity of US claims that Beijing is building up its nuclear arsenal. Washington is trying to bring Beijing to the negotiation table for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which currently limits the United States and Russia to 1,550 nuclear offensive warheads per nation. Russia says that it has no intention of forcing China to participate in the talks.