US TO JOIN AUSTRALIA, INDIA, JAPAN IN FIRST-EVER QUAD SUMMIT
The ‘Quad’ meeting comes as the US has stressed working with allies in the Indo-Pacific to counter Beijing’s growing might.
US President Joe Biden will hold the first-ever joint talks with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan as part of an emerging four-way alliance seen as fundamental to efforts to balance China’s growing military and economic power.
Friday’s (12.03.2021) virtual meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the “Quad”, will be one of Biden’s first summits since taking office and comes as his administration has sought to counter China’s military and trade expansion by strengthening alliances.
The Quad was launched in 2007 by Japan’s then prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was alarmed at China’s growing assertiveness around Asia. That President Biden has made this one of his earliest multilateral engagements speaks to the importance that we place on close cooperation with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific. A range of topics facing the global community is expected to be discussed “from the threat of COVID to economic cooperation and, of course, to the climate crisis, a very strong signal of common cause and purpose. And the goal here is basically to introduce the Quad as a new feature of regular diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who called the upcoming meeting “a historic moment” and said it “sends a strong message to the region about our support for a sovereign, independent Indo-Pacific”. Japan, for its part, has said Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and voiced alarm about China’s “unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and the South China Sea” as well as the status of rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
The Indian foreign ministry has said the four leaders “will exchange views on practical areas of cooperation towards maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.” The meeting is also expected to include the announcement of financing agreements to support an increase in manufacturing capacity for coronavirus vaccines in India, something New Delhi has urged to counter China’s widening distribution of vaccines in the region as part of its so-called “vaccine diplomacy”, the senior US administration official told Reuters.
CHINA’S GROWING INFLUENCE
The summit follows talks on February 18 among the foreign ministers of the Quad when they pressed jointly for a restoration of democracy in Myanmar after the military overthrew democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. US officials cast the meeting as a key way of exerting pressure on Yangon, as India and Japan enjoy closer relationships with Myanmar’s military, which has historically counted on China as its main source of support. The Quad foreign ministers, however, were careful not to make an explicit mention of China, which has voiced alarm at what it sees as an effort to gang up on its interests in Asia.
After Biden’s election, Chinese state media had printed articles calling on India to end the Quad, seeing New Delhi as the most likely to oppose the forum. But views have hardened in India after a pitched battle in the Himalayas last year killed at least 20 Indian troops. Australia has also shown growing willingness to participate in the Quad as relations deteriorate with Beijing, with Canberra last year joining naval exercises with the three other nations off India’s shores.
WHAT ARE THE QUAD COUNTRIES?
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (abbr. QSD, also known as the Quad or Asian NATO) is an informal strategic forum between the United States, Japan, India and Australia that is maintained by semi-regular summits, information exchanges and military drills between member countries.
WHAT IS QUAD GROUP?
Quad comprises of Japan, India, Australia and the United States is not an alliance but a grouping of countries that are interested in strengthening a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.
WHAT IS QUAD AGREEMENT?
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, aka “the Quad,” a four-country coalition with a common platform of protecting. freedom of navigation and promoting democratic values in. the region.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF QUAD?
The core objectives of the QUAD is to secure a rules-based global order, liberal trading system and freedom of navigation. It seeks to contain a 'rising China' and work against its predatory trade and economic policies.
HOW MANY COUNTRIES ARE IN QUAD?
The leaders will discuss ongoing efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and explore opportunities for collaboration in ensuring safe, equitable and affordable vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region. The four Quad member countries have been resolving to uphold a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific.
WHY QUAD IS FORMED?
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) of four countries, Japan, the US, Australia and India, was formed in 2007 with the initiative coming from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. ... The aim of the Quad is to support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region that China seeks to threaten.
IS QUAD A MILITARY ALLIANCE?
We are observing the rise of Quad as an exclusive military alliance. ... The 'Quad' is the colloquial term for the informal grouping of four countries – the United States, Japan, India and Australia – which first met in 2007.
WHERE WAS THE MALABAR EXERCISE HELD?
Aircraft carriers deployed Phase-I of the 24th edition of Malabar was held from November 3 to 6 off the Visakhapatnam coast in the Bay of Bengal and Phase-II was held from November 17 to 20 in the northern Arabian Sea. The first phase of the Malabar naval exercise has culminated recently in the Bay of Bengal with the participation of the Indian Navy, United States Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force, and Royal Australian Navy. The importance of those exercises is that they complement diplomatic efforts and ensure inter-operability. They help to test strategies and their use in actual hostilities, ensure combat readiness and create understanding between military and ancillary personnel.
CHINA TO QUAD NATIONS AHEAD OF KEY MEET
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told media persons that his country believes in regional cooperation architecture, but the US has been favouring the idea of setting up security architecture in order to check China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. A wary China told the Quad countries that it is closely monitoring their key meet and hoped that the four countries – the US, India, Australia and Japan – will do things conducive to regional peace and stability, instead of the opposite when they hold their first Leaders’ Summit. The busy schedule of arrangements seems, to Chinese observers, like a water-testing move from the US to sound out its Asian partners' attitude toward forming an ‘unbreakable alliance’ to counter China’s rise.
