When Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday morning discussed “wider security issues” expressing concern on the AUKUS defence alliance in Beijing, Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) also figured during the talk. “The two leaders shared their views on it, and various other key issues related to the Indo-Pacific as well,” sources told The Daily Guardian.
Diplomats in the Ministry of External Affairs see it as “an important development, with the Quad Foreign Ministers set to meet in Australia later this month to discuss strategy to deal with Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific and other strategic issues.
Indian diplomats in touch with their Russian counterparts are learnt to have briefed External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the details of this meeting. EAM Jaishankar is going to Australia to attend the Quad discussions where China’s assertiveness is going to be one of the key agendas. He will also have bilateral talks
with his counterparts of Quad countries—US, Australia and Japan.
Sources told The Daily Guardian that Xi underlined Quad as an anti-China construct during the meeting. Putin and Xi agreed on wider security issues, reaffirming their support for each other’s foreign policy, said sources. “Both expressed concern over the AUKUS defence alliance which includes Australia, the UK and the US.” The joint statement mentioned it as well. “Though they did not refer to Quad in the joint statement, they held discussion on it,” sources said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during his visit to New Delhi in March 2021, described Quad as the Asian NATO. “In fact, Russia is opposed to the creation of security blocs in the region,” said a diplomat. “Any group which sees China as a real strategic challenge cannot go down well with Putin at a time when Moscow and Beijing are getting closer amid growing tension between Russia and the West including the US because of the Ukraine crisis,” said the diplomat.
“With this being the case, Putin must have backed Xi’s line on Quad in the meeting,” he said. According to him, EAM Jaishankar is expected to discuss this too during the Quad meeting as well as in his bilateral meetings in Australia. The EAM will meet the Foreign Ministers of Japan and Australia, Yoshimasa Hayasi and Marise Payne, respectively, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
There is no doubt that the Joe Biden administration’s focus at present is more on Russia owing to the Ukraine confrontation. “But EAM wants the US to turn its focus on China which is posing a major strategic challenge at this point of time. With this in view, EAM Jaishankar will underline the need for all Quad partners to keep their focus on the real problem in the Indo-Pacific,” sources said.