ASEAN Summit: China says US, Japan, Australia and India should not target Beijing

Beijing: China on Monday said the US, Japan, India and Australia should not target Beijing, a day after the four met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Manila and decided to work for a “free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region”. [caption id=“attachment_4207193” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US president Donald Trump at the ASEAN Summit in Manila on Sunday. PTI[/caption] China also said the US-brokered proposal of these countries to ensure free and open “Indo-Pacific … should avoid politicising or excluding some relevant parties”. “The relevant proposal should be open and inclusive and should be conducive to the win-win cooperation and avoid politicising or excluding some relevant parties,” foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said. “From China’s persistent foreign policy, we welcome the development of friendly cooperation between the relevant countries and we hope these kind of relations is not directed against any third party and we hope these kind of relations will be conducive to the regional peace and stability.” Geng added. The region described by India and US as “Indo-Pacific” is called “Asia-Pacific” by China. The representatives of the four countries met for the first time on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit on Sunday. Later, India’s external affairs ministry said: “The discussions focused on cooperation based on their converging vision and values for promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in an increasingly inter-connected region that they share with each other and with other partners.”