What the US, India, Japan and Australia talked about at their strategic summit to stop China

The “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” Come in Australia, India, Japan and United States, the Quad, began as a forum for informal and ongoing discussion among senior officials on naval cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. In recent months, the forum has started to transform into high level strategic cooperation in terms of technology, global economy, security and pandemic. And the real raison d’être of this quartet is curb the advance and influence of China.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced another strategic alliance with Great Britain and Australia, the UKUS, which has the same objective, and which created diplomatic friction with France – and the rest of Europe – by omitting it. Today, the United States is deepening its new geopolitical strategy for the Pacific, Indian Ocean and China Sea with the first in-person summit between the leaders of the four Quad countries.

They sat at the table in the White House President Biden with Prime Ministers Yoshihide Suga of Japan, Scott Morrison of Australia and Narendra Modi of India. Obviously, it was a cordial meeting during which each of the people present presented their vision. India is the most needy and at the same time the most beneficiary of the meeting. It needs a counterweight to the growing advance of China and that of its great rival, Pakistan. In this area, he lost a very important ally with the fall of the pro-Western government of Afghanistan and the seizure of power by the Taliban. With Beijing, he has a historic dispute in the Himalayan region. Following a border clash in mid-2020, which resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers, relations became strained and things did not go to the greatest because Delhi was reluctant to sever relations with Beijing.

Japan also fears Chinese military expansionism at its maritime gates and in recent months, I have taken a more aggressive stance towards Beijing. For the same reason, Australia clings to the double alliance it now integrates with the aim of balancing bilateral trade which is starting to be too beneficial for the Chinese. And the United States needs these two pacts to finish taking the helm of its policy towards China. The next fifty years will be defined by whoever wins this politico-commercial-scientific-technological offer.

“We are here together in the Indo-Pacific region, a region that we want to see is always free from coercion, where the sovereign rights of all nations are respected and disputes are resolved peacefully in accordance with international law, ”Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said during his address at the meeting.

Australian Institute of Strategic Policy senior analyst Malcolm Davis said in one of the forums for economic broadcaster CNBC that compared to his early days under George W’s administration . Bush, the Quad took on an unusual importance. “This is not an Asian NATO (by the Western Defense Treaty to deal with Russian influence), but is clearly going in that direction a cooperative security approach, ”said Davis.

The Quad was originally offered in 2007, but was suspended for a decade until it was reactivated under former President Donald Trump. amid China’s rise as an economic and military superpower. The diplomatic environment in Asia has changed dramatically since this revival in 2017, and the Quad has become even more important.

In April 2020, relations between Australia and China suffered a serious setback after Prime Minister Morrison Call for an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Beijing has retaliated by imposing punitive restrictions on Australian goods, and the relationship has yet to be mended. Japan also welcomed the increased engagement of the United States in the region. After trying to pursue a more sympathetic policy towards China during the first years of President Xi Jinping’s tenure, Japan has become increasingly cautious over the past year. In an interview with CNN earlier this month, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said that Japan will “resolutely defend” its territory in the East China Sea “against Chinese action”. Meanwhile, ties between Washington and Beijing that have deteriorated under Trump’s tenure continue to weaken to an even lower point in Biden’s tenure.

The future of the island of Taiwan was another key point of the debate Friday in Washington. For a year, Beijing intensified military activity and threats around the island. China’s clear goal is to reclaim Taiwan and annex it to the mainland after seventy years of political independence. The Chinese Communist Party considers the island – home to some 24 million people – an inseparable part of its territory, even though it has never controlled it. President Xi Xinping has already warned in more than one speech that does not exclude the use of force to “reunify” his country.

Under Trump, and now Biden, United States strengthened ties with government in Taipei with arms sales agreements and very high-level diplomatic meetings. Australia has rejected any aggression against Taiwan, and in July Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said in a speech that Tokyo should join forces with Washington. defend the island from any invasion.

For the moment, no specific naval exercise has been announced. Quartet leaders don’t want to be the ones to launch any direct provocation against China. But they want the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party to take note of the position of their Indo-Chinese neighbors. And it is possible that several other countries like Canada, Singapore, France and South Korea. Vietnam should not be excluded either. Of course, China is not going to find itself with crossed glasses before the Western offensive and will try to dig one or more wedges between partners.