India, Nov. 3 -- President Donald Trump has promoted the concept of a G2 - a grouping of the US and China - since his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, describing it as a force for everlasting peace and success. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, one of Trump's key acolytes, and his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, agreed at a subsequent meeting to set up military-to-military channels to de-conflict and de-escalate problems between the US and China. How much of this is the usual Trumpian hyperbole remains to be seen, though Beijing, in its first formal response, has spoken about continuing to practice true multilateralism and working with other countries to uphold the multilateral trading system, the UN Charter and t...