Vice President Joe Biden met with Australia’s prime minister and other leaders on Tuesday, amid America’s continued push to boost its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
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U.S. Vice President Joe Biden left some none-too-subtle hints that America would intervene in the South China Sea dispute if needed, and potentially laid the groundwork for a request that Australia join the fray also.
“Don’t worry about our election”, Mr. Biden said in Sydney on the day after Republicans nominated Donald Trump for president. “We are a Pacific nation, we are a Pacific power, and we will do our part to maintain peace and stability in our region”.
Of the latest violence, Biden said: “My heart goes out … to those families”.
Mr Biden, wrapping up a four-day Australian tour, also reiterated his belief in the Australia-US alliance, rubbished predictions of America’s declining role in worldwide affairs and urged people not to worry about his homeland’s eyebrow-raising election race.
“It is overwhelmingly in our interest that you New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Korea in the North East Pacific and everywhere in between, that the countries prosper”.
“It’s never been a good bet to bet against the United States”, Vice-President Joe Biden has proclaimed, making the case for USA economic and military supremacy to maintain the “rules-based worldwide order” in the Pacific region amid ongoing tensions with China.
Biden made the comments in a speech on Wednesday punctuating his four-day trip Down Under.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, center, addresses Australian Defense Force personnel on board the HMAS Adelaide, in Sydney, Tuesday, July 19, 2016. He said: “The better angels in America will prevail”.
Biden is the second United States vice president to make a stopover in Pago Pago.
Mr Biden’s visit, which comes as President Barack Obama enters the final months of his administration, ends today when he travels to New Zealand. That is who we are. It has become a disputed area as China claimed it had historic rights over areas of the sea, laying claim to its resources and building artificial islands.
Speaking to reporters after their talks in Sydney, Biden said they “reaffirmed our commitment to continue to work together to uphold the liberal global order that has served the world so well for the past 75 years and to maintain the free flow of commerce and trade in the air and on sea, making sure the sea lanes are open and the skies are free for navigation”.
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And when asked which relationship was more important out of the U.S. and China, Australians were split 50-50 for the first time (two years ago 48 per cent said the United States and 37 per cent China).
