While speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Sunday, President Joe Biden discussed his intentions in building the United States’ relationship with China, saying he doesn’t “want to contain” the country.
“I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said in Hanoi. “I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up squared away. Everybody knows what it’s all about.”
Biden has been visiting China’s neighboring nations as a means to strengthen relations in the area, and his visit to Vietnam comes after the G20 summit in India.
With Biden’s trip comes an upgrade to the country's relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the same designation that Hanoi has with China and Russia.
“Having India cooperate much more with the United States, be closer to the United States, Vietnam being closer with the United States, it’s not about containing China. It’s about having a stable base, a stable base in Indo-Pacific,” Biden said.
Biden said he doesn’t think building a relationship with countries in the region was hurting China, saying that “we think too much in Cold War terms.”
“I want to see China succeed economically,” Biden said. “But I want to see them succeed by the rules.”
During the G-20 summit the president discussed several topics, including the economy, infrastructure, and more while also denouncing the war in Ukraine.