Ex-Malaysia PM: US-led trade group intended to isolate China | World News,The Indian Express

US President Joe Biden launched the 13-nation Indo-Pacific Economic Framework during a visit to Japan earlier this week. He said it will help the United States work more closely with Asian countries in areas including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy and anticorruption.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized a new US-led economic grouping on Friday, saying it is intended to isolate China, and won’t benefit regional economic growth without Beijing.

US President Joe Biden launched the 13-nation Indo-Pacific Economic Framework during a visit to Japan earlier this week. He said it will help the United States work more closely with Asian countries in areas including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy and anti-corruption.

“The US will always want to use groupings like this in order to isolate China,” Mahathir said at an international conference in Tokyo. “Many countries recognize that this is not an economic grouping but it is truly a political grouping.” The signatories are Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. Together they represent 40% of the world’s GDP.

“This is not good for their own economic development,” Mahathir said of the countries in the grouping.

“China is a big trading partner for Malaysia, we don’t want to see any tension, any conflict with China and we hope that the US will realize that China is there, it’s not going to disappear, and we have to live with China, which is now richer than most countries in the world,” he said at “The Future of Asia”, a conference organized by Nikkei Inc.

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/ex-malaysia-pm-us-led-trade-group-isolate-china-7941408/

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