China calls for ‘united, mutually supportive’ Asia-Pacific as India hosts Japanese premier

China on Thursday urged Asia-Pacific nations to remain “clear-eyed” and called for a “stable, united and mutually supportive” region as India hosts Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for talks in New Delhi.

Beijing was responding to the concept of “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)” promoted by Takaichi.

“Chanting for freedom and openness when actually has confrontation and antagonism in mind. The concept … goes against the regional countries' shared aspiration of peace, development and cooperation and will never win genuine recognition,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing.

“What the Asia-Pacific needs is stability not turbulence, and values cooperation and not division,” said Guo.

Takaichi, who is on three-day visit to India beginning Wednesday, in a piece published in Indian media, said: “We must work together to enhance the autonomy and resilience of countries in vulnerable positions so that they are never forced into choices under coercion from other states – this is the essence of the ‘Updated FOIP’ I set forth in May.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Takaichi are attending 16th India-Japan annual summit in New Delhi on Thursday.

“A genuinely free and open region is not one where only the great powers enjoy freedom but one where every nation is able to chart its own course of its own free will, unswayed by external coercion. This is the true nature of FOIP,” she wrote.

However, Guo said: “Facing the tricks of creating divisions and provoking confrontation, it is more imperative than even for regional countries to stay clear eyed, unite as one, stay on the right track of Asia-Pacific cooperation, enhance mutual trust through dialogue and consultation, uphold tranquility through mutually beneficial cooperation and work for an Asia-Pacific that is prosperous, stable, open, interconnected, universally beneficial, inclusive, united and mutually supportive.”