Joe Biden faces criticism for saying allies India, Japan are ‘xenophobic’ and ‘don’t want immigrants’

US President Joe Biden is facing a backlash in some quarters for characterising India and Japan as “xenophobic” for “not wanting immigrants”, with warnings about a potential diplomatic blunder given Washington’s strengthened ties with the Asian powers to counter China.

Biden’s remarks, which were made on Wednesday night at a campaign fundraising event in Washington where the audience was largely Asian-American, came just weeks after hosting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state visit at the White House.

Biden said that “one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants”.

Lumping both adversaries and allies together, he added that the reason why China, Japan, India and Russia were facing economic headwinds was because “they’re xenophobic”.

“They don’t want immigrants,” he said.

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The Japanese and Indian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither country has issued a formal response.

His remarks were the lead item on Indian news programmes, with prominent journalists responding critically.

“His advisers better get a grip on the president’s loose-cannon statements. If not, one of these days it could trigger a diplomatic storm,” Indian journalist Palki Sharma said in a prime-time broadcast, quoting the country’s promising economic growth figures. India, the world’s fastest-growing big country, is expanding at an annual rate of 6 to 7 per cent.

According to latest available data, there were nearly 4.9 million foreign-born residents in India – a country of 1.4 billion – as of 2020, making it the 14th top destination