China's Defense Minister Says US Indo-Pacific Strategy Directed Against One Country

BEIJING (Sputnik) - Chinese Defene Minister Wei Fenghe said on Sunday that the US Indo-Pacific strategy is aimed at fomenting confrontation in the region to deter one particular country.

US President Joe Biden launched the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) together with 12 Indo-Pacific countries, namely Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, in late May in Tokyo.

The initiative is aimed at increasing cooperation between the Indo-Pacific nations and delivering concrete benefits for the people of the region.

"It [the strategy] is directed against one particular state," Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe told the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's defense summit, being held from June 10-12 in Singapore.

The minister noted that Beijing considers this strategy to be an attempt to establish an exclusive small group of countries under the pretext of the free and open Indo-Pacific region to control other nations in the region.

The said strategy seeks to foment conflicts "in order to deter," Wei noted.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in late May that the strategy, which aims to foment confrontation and undermine peace in the region, is bound to fail.

He argued that "the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy is essentially a strategy of creating dissension, fomenting confrontation and undermining peace" under the banner of "freedom and openness" to form groups in the region, seeking to place the countries of the region at the service of its hegemony.