As a counterweight to China, Joe Biden seeks to revive the alliance with India, Japan and Australia

US President Joe Biden continues to move his chips in the Indo-Pacific region as he receives the Prime Ministers of India, Japan and Australia on Friday, after announcing last week a spectacular military alliance between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

After meeting Scott Morrison (Australia), Narendra Modi (India) and Yoshihide Suga (Japan), Biden pointed out “Excellent progress” towards a “free and open” Indo-Pacific, amid growing concern for China’s military and political rise in the region.

“When we met almost six months ago, we adopted commitments to advance our common and positive agenda for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Today, I am proud to say that we are making excellent progress ”, affirmed the American president.

Biden, who wants to contain China’s growing influence in the region, seeks to relaunch the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue”, also called “Quad”, and outlined after the devastating tsunami of 2004 and formalized in 2007, but long inactive.

Before the meeting and with the Indian Prime Minister, in the Oval Office, Biden described the agenda for the day: “Today we are going to talk about what else we can do to fight covid-19, face climate challenges and ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”

“Turn to Asia”

When you reactivate the “Quad “, Biden is sort of looking for the “Asian turn” of American foreign policy, a goal former President Barack Obama (2009-2017) once had.

But after AUKUS announcement, as the agreement with the United Kingdom and Australia is known – and its nuclear submarine contract which angered France -, Washington wants to present the “Quad” in a consensual light.

It is an “informal” and “intimate” cenacle designed to “develop better channels of communication”senior White House officials told reporters.

There is no “military” objective, they insisted, assuring that the “Quad” would be “complementary” to other regional initiatives, in response to a question about its articulation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Some members of this organization, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, they fear that the US offensive in the region will lead to an escalation with China.

Semiconductors, vaccines, weather

According to senior officials, it is expected that the “Quad” insists on Friday in particular on economic, environmental and pandemic control projects.

The four partners want to launch a initiative to protect semiconductor supplies, those essential electronic components both in washing machines and in airplanes or smartphones, and which industries around the world currently have difficulties to obtain.

They also plan to talk about 5G technology, cybersecurity, university exchanges, space projects, fishing and vaccines.

“For Washington, the challenge is to go beyond the security paradigm and improve the economic position of the United States in Southeast Asia “Area specialist Jonathan Stromseth said in a note released by the Brookings Institution Research Center.

Stromseth felt that the effort to relaunch the “Quad” is “emblematic” of “the Biden administration’s approach to China, presented as competitive when necessary, cooperative when possible and confrontational when necessary ”.

The Democratic President maintains a hard line against China more or less comparable to that of his predecessor, Republican Donald TrumpBut he faces the confrontation with Beijing in a different way.

Biden, what seeks to overcome the cross face-to-face between the two superpowers, hopes to reactivate the game of alliances and to incite the traditional partners of the United States to take frank positions against China.

(With information from AFP)

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