In what augurs well for India’s plan to put China on top of the agenda during the Quad summit in Tokyo on Tuesday morning, the other partners of the forum have clearly signalled that they are going to use the opportunity to focus more on the challenges posed by Beijing, even though the meeting is being held under the shadow of the Ukraine conflict. Indian diplomats, who have been in regular touch with their counterparts from the US, Japan and Australia, have got a sense of what is to come up during the discussions at the Summit. “Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s blistering attack on the Quad just hours ahead of the summit has upset the leaders of the grouping,” a diplomat told The Daily Guardian Review. Sources said that Wang Yi’s remarks and other issues related to China figured
during the talks between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also set to raise the issues related to Beijing’s belligerence at the Summit and during his bilateral meetings with President Biden, PM Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, respectively, on Tuesday.
After his meeting with PM Kishida, President Biden signalled how his focus was going to be on China during the Quad Summit as well. Biden said that the United States would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan in what was described as the most forceful and overt statement from a US leader in support of Taiwan in decades. “In other words, the US President set the tone for the summit where China will be discussed prominently,” sources said. The launch of the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is already a signal that the Quad with the participation and cooperation of other countries of the Indo-Pacific is going to deal with China’s economic dominance quite effectively.
The statement of the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is also being viewed as a strong message to China. The Australian leader, before leaving for the Quad summit in Japan, said that his “country’s relationship with China would remain a difficult one.” Ahead of his meeting with President Biden, PM Kishida and PM Modi in Tokyo, Anthony Albanese warned that Australia would always stand up for its values against China. Indian officials see this as another indication of the fact that Chinese challenges are going to be the key talking point at the summit.
In another significant development, the Quad countries—US, India, Australia and Japan—are set to unveil a maritime surveillance plan to keep an eye on Chinese vessels. China is responsible for 95% of illegal fishing activities in the Indo-Pacific. So, the Quad partners will unlock Indo-Pacific potentials all the more, keeping in mind such activities of China, sources said.
Japan is already facing problems in the sea around the Senkaku Islands. China is conducting its activities near this island. China’s repeated disregard for current international law is troubling Tokyo as well. PM Modi and PM Kishida are set to discuss strengthening strategic ties between India and Japan to tackle China’s challenge.
In fact, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy is doomed to fail. “Facts will prove that the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’ is essentially a strategy for creating divisions, a strategy for inciting confrontation, and a strategy for destroying peace,” the Chinese foreign ministry also said in a statement after Wang met his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto in Guangzhou on Sunday.