U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks to the U.S.-Arab Quint Meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Monday for tighter defence integration among Gulf Arabs in response to Iran, part of efforts to encourage moderation by Israel by dangling the prospect of better ties with the region.

Mr. Blinken was starting his seventh visit to West Asia since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which has responded with a relentless military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has brought growing public pressure for a ceasefire.

It is Mr. Blinken’s first trip to the region since the long shadow war between Israel and Iran broke out into the open, which included the Islamic republic firing missiles and armed drones at military sites in Israel.

“This attack highlights the acute and growing threat from Iran but also the imperative that we work together on integrated defence,” Mr. Blinken told Gulf Cooperation Council ministers meeting in Riyadh.

Mr. Blinken said the United States would hold talks in the coming weeks with the six-nation bloc on integrating air and missile defence and boosting maritime security.

The United States already has strong military relations with all the Gulf Arab states, but relations among the six have seen their ups and downs.

Mr. Blinken said that the region had a choice on its future, including “one ridden with divisions and destruction and violence and permanent instability”.

Gulf Arabs, through their meeting with the United States, were choosing “greater integration” and “greater peace”, he said.

Incentivising Netanyahu

Israel, which has long warned against Iran, on April 1 carried out a purported strike in Syria that levelled an Iranian diplomatic building, killing members of the elite Revolutionary Guards including two generals.

Iran responded with its attack and Israel in turn was suspected to have carried out a subsequent strike inside central Iran.

U.S. officials privately say that they expect the escalatory cycle to be over for now, with both adversaries making their points without inflicting major damage or casualties.

Two Gulf Arab nations — the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — have recognised Israel but the United States has been pushing a bigger prize: Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.

Mr. Blinken was expected to meet later Monday with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to seek to push forward normalisation.

Washington has hoped to use the prospect of Saudi ties to encourage compromise by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime foe of a Palestinian state who has also sought to highlight his role in building relations with the Arab world.

Also Read | Biden and Netanyahu speak as pressure’s on Israel over planned Rafah invasion and cease-fire talks

Qatar has played a key role in talks that aim to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas and release hostages.

Opening the meeting, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said the “international community’s failure to find a solution to the Palestinian cause” presents one of the “most significant” challenges to regional security.

Mr. Blinken told the Gulf Arab nations that he would press for a Palestinian state and more humanitarian access into Gaza.

“The most effective way to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to alleviate the suffering,” Mr. Blinken said, “and to create space for a more just and durable solution, is to get a ceasefire and the hostages home.”

Mr. Blinken, who will later head to Jordan and Israel, arrived hours after President Joe Biden and Mr. Netanyahu spoke by telephone about ceasefire talks.

Mr. Biden also reiterated concerns about Israel launching an operation in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinians have taken shelter.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a critical trip to China armed with a strengthened diplomatic hand following Senate approval of a foreign aid package that will provide billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform -– all areas of contention between Washington and Beijing.

Blinken arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday just hours after the Senate vote on the long-stalled legislation and shortly before President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law to demonstrate U.S. resolve in defending its allies and partners. Passage of the bill will add further complications to an already complex relationship that has been strained by disagreements over numerous global and regional disputes.

Still, the fact that Blinken is making the trip — shortly after a conversation between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a similar visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and a call between the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs — is a sign the two sides are at least willing to discuss their differences.

Of primary interest to China, the bill sets aside $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the broader Indo-Pacific and gives China’s ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok with a possible three-month extension if a sale is in progress. China has railed against U.S. assistance to Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, and immediately condemned the move as a dangerous provocation. It also strongly opposes efforts to force TikTok’s sale.

The bill also allots $26 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza, and $61 billion for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s invasion. The Biden administration has been disappointed in China’s response to the war in Gaza and has complained loudly that Chinese support for Russia’s military-industrial sector has allowed Moscow to subvert Western sanctions and ramp up attacks on Ukraine.

Even before Blinken landed in Shanghai — where he will have meetings on Thursday before traveling to Beijing — China’s Taiwan Affairs Office slammed the assistance to Taipei, saying it “seriously violates” U.S. commitments to China, “sends a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces” and pushes the self-governing island republic into a “dangerous situation.”

China and the United States are the major players in the Indo-Pacific and Washington has become increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s growing aggressiveness in recent years toward Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

The U.S. has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and has vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have steadily boosted military support and sales for Taiwan, much to Chinese anger.

A senior State Department official said last week that Blinken would “underscore, both in private and public, America’s abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We think that is vitally important for the region and the world.”

In the South China Sea, the U.S. and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas.

In particular, the U.S. has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate maritime activities by others in the sea, notably the Philippines and Vietnam. That was a major topic of concern this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

On Ukraine, which U.S. officials say will be a primary topic of conversation during Blinken’s visit, the Biden administration said that Chinese support has allowed Russia to largely reconstitute its defense industrial base, affecting not only the war in Ukraine but posing a threat to broader European security.

“If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken said last week.

China says it has the right to trade with Russia and accuses the U.S. of fanning the flames by arming and funding Ukraine. “It is extremely hypocritical and irresponsible for the U.S. to introduce a large-scale aid bill for Ukraine while making groundless accusations against normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Russia,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Tuesday.

On the Middle East, U.S. officials, from Biden on down, have repeatedly appealed to China to use any leverage it may have with Iran to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza from spiraling into a wider regional conflict.

While China appears to have been generally receptive to such calls — particularly because it depends heavily on oil imports from Iran and other Mideast nations — tensions have steadily increased since the beginning of the Gaza war in October and more recent direct strikes and counterstrikes between Israel and Iran.

Blinken has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East. He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, several times urging China to tell Iran to restrain the proxy groups it has supported in the region, including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.

The senior State Department official said Blinken would reiterate the U.S. interest in China using “whatever channels or influence it has to try to convey the need for restraint to all parties, including Iran.”

The U.S. and China are also at deep odds over human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as the fate of several American citizens that the State Department says have been “wrongfully detained” by Chinese authorities, and the supply of precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.

China has repeatedly rejected the American criticism of its rights record as improper interference in its internal affairs. Yet, Blinken will again raise these issues, according to the State Department official.

Another department official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to preview Blinken’s private talks with Chinese officials, said China had made efforts to rein in the export of materials that traffickers use to make fentanyl but that more needs to be done.

The two sides agreed last year to set up a working group to look into ways to combat the surge of production of fentanyl precursors in China and their export abroad. U.S. officials say they believe they had made some limited progress on cracking down on the illicit industry but many producers had found ways to get around new restrictions.

“We need to see continued and sustained progress,” the official said, adding that “more regular law enforcement” against Chinese precursor producers “would send a strong signal of China’s commitment to address this issue.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talks with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns with U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai Scott Walker, while attending a basketball game between the Shanghai Sharks and the Zhejiang Golden Bulls at Shanghai Indoor Stadium, in Shanghai, China on April 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned on April 24 to China on his second visit in a year, as the United States ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing.

The U.S. diplomat will meet China’s top brass on Friday in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates a new leader, and to raise U.S. concerns on Chinese trade practices — a vital issue for President Joe Biden in an election year.

Also Read | China is boosting Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, says U.S.

But Mr. Blinken is also seeking to stabilise ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies palpably easing since his last visit in June.

At the time, he was the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China in five years, and the trip was followed by a meeting between the countries’ presidents in November.

At that summit in California, Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a U.S. wish list including restoring contact between militaries and cracking down on precursor chemicals to fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind an addiction epidemic in the United States.

Mr. Blinken arrived in Shanghai, where he will kick off his visit by attending a Chinese basketball play-off match between two teams with American players on their rosters.

The friendly side trip — the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the bustling metropolis since Hillary Clinton in 2010 — would have been unthinkable until recently, with hawks on both sides previously speaking of a new Cold War between the two powers.

Pressing on Russia

A senior U.S. official previewing Mr. Blinken’s trip said the relationship between the countries was at a “different place” to a year ago, when it was at “an historic low point”.

However, “responsibly managing competition does not mean we will pull back from measures to protect U.S. national interests”, he added.

The Biden administration’s eagerness to engage China stands in stark contrast to its efforts to isolate Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The United States has accused China in recent weeks of lavishing industrial material and technology on Moscow.

Washington has encouraged European leaders to stand firm on China not backing Russia, believing Beijing wants stable ties with the West as it focuses on addressing economic headwinds at home.

“If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fuelling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Mr. Blinken said Friday.

Progress on fentanyl

The Biden administration has trumpeted the agreement with Mr. Xi on fentanyl as a success.

A State Department official said that since the November summit, China appears to have taken its first law enforcement measures on the matter since 2017, and that Mr. Blinken would be asking for further implementation.

More regular law enforcement action from Beijing against China-based companies involved in fentanyl supply chains “would send a strong signal of China’s commitment to address this issue”, the official said.

Other issues likely to come up will be more fraught.

The U.S. Congress gave final approval on Tuesday night to a $95 billion package of assistance to allies including self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

In response, China said Wednesday that U.S. military support for the island only increased the “risk of conflict”, and warned it would take “resolute and effective measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity”.

The U.S. Congress also approved legislation on Tuesday requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, or be shut out of the American market.

Asked about the development, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry declined to respond, referring journalists to China’s “previously explained… principled position”.

Beijing has furiously denounced the plans, urging Washington to “truly respect the principles of market economy and fair competition”.

Also Read | Xi Jinping says Putin’s re-election ‘fully reflects’ support of Russian people

Mr. Biden faces a rematch in November against former president Donald Trump, who has vowed a more confrontational approach against China.

Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said that China’s leaders, eager to focus on their economy, were in a wait-and-see mode ahead of the U.S. election.

“The Chinese understand that the Biden administration is unlikely to deliver any good news on trade because that simply does not support the election agenda,” she said.

For Chinese leaders this year, “their priority is to keep the relationship stable”.

“Until there is clarity on who the next administration will be, I don’t think they see a better strategy,” she said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives to tour a hydroelectric plant in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 7, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on September 7 praised Ukraine’s strength in the face of the Russian invasion during a visit to the Chernigiv region, which was occupied by Moscow at the beginning of the war.

Mr. Blinken visited a school’s basement in Yagidne, where Russian troops kept dozens of villagers including elderly people and children captive.

“This is just one building… [but] this is a story we’ve seen again and again,” Mr. Blinken said.

“But we are also seeing something else that’s incredibly powerful… the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people.”

Russian forces had seized parts of the Chernigiv region, including Yagidne, soon after the beginning of the war.

They withdrew after about a month, and Yagidne was recaptured by Ukrainian forces on March 30, 2022.

But the Russian army left towns and land destroyed and heavily mined.

Mr. Blinken said up to a third of Ukraine’s territory was now dealing with mines or unexploded ordnance.

“But Ukrainians are coming together to get rid of the ordnance, to get rid of the mines, and to literally recover the land,” Mr. Blinken said.

The top U.S. official said Washington was “proud” to support Ukraine’s efforts to “take on the aggression as they recover as they rebuild.”