New Delhi, Jul 23 (UNI) Former US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill has lamented the lack of diplomatic engagement between United States and China and said the only way the world's top two economies communicate nowadays was through 'fiery speeches' and 'antagonistic press releases'.

Speaking at a webinar titled ‘Italy, Europe and India: building a post Covid economy” on Wednesday, he said the recent aggressive posturing by China is part of its pursuit for assuming domination in the Asia pacific region by dislodging the United States and this confrontation would negatively affect India, Europe and other countries in the Indo Pacific region.
The webinar was conducted by ‘Ananta Aspen center’ India in cooperation with its Italian counterpart.

“In these perilous times neither the United States nor China seem interested in using diplomacy to reduce the tensions. There is very little high level diplomatic contact between the two, they communicate through fiery speeches and antagonistic press releases” he said.
Mr Blackwill said the recent aggressive posturing by China is part of its pursuit for assuming domination in the Asia pacific region by dislodging the United States and the US-China relationship would dominate the area right from India to Japan in the foreseeable future.
He said the US--China relations had been on a downward spiral and the fundamental problem is strategic, 'China seeks to replace the United States as the dominant power in Asia. Unsurprisingly the United States resists; this confrontation would negatively affect India, Europe and other countries in the Indo Pacific region."

He made a strong pitch for talks between the US and China “Next year is the 50th anniversary of Henry Kissinger's historic visit to Beijing and his talks with Zhou Enlai.
The talks had lasted more than 20 hours over three days. 'The characteristics of those talks were that they were high level, they were intense, they were private, they were mutually respectful, they accepted each other's value of governance and they were dedicated to problem solving. That's not a bad formula for today."
Mr Blackwill identified Taiwan as potentially the most dangerous flashpoint in the world. 'The most dangerous real estate in the world is Taiwan, a single provocation by the Taiwanese government could trigger a Chinese use of force against the island . 'What will the US then do ? What will be its effect on the international economy", he asked.
On the question of India he said he did not believe that US and India would enter into a formal military alliance as the Indians have had a long and bitter experience of colonialism. Yet the confrontation between India and China in the Ladakh region would lead to closer US-India ties, he said.
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