New Quad talks strengthen ties among US, Japan, India and Australia
Senior diplomats from the US, Japan, India and Australia held another round of talks on Thursday, the latest sign that the burgeoning alliance known as the Quad continues to grow closer in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
The officials from the four nations met by videoconference to discuss "strategic challenges" in the Indo-Pacific region, "promoting democracy and human rights" and "the importance of peace and security in the Taiwan Strait", according to the US State Department.
The meeting was "part of regular Quad consultations to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region", the department said.
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It comes as US President Joe Biden has embraced American allies around the world as essential partners in Washington's tense economic and geopolitical competition with China.
Biden, speaking in the White House in Washington on Thursday, has made the Quad an essential component of his policy to compete with China. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Biden, speaking in the White House in Washington on Thursday, has made the Quad an essential component of his policy to compete with China. Photo: Bloomberg
In March, Biden and the prime ministers of Japan, India and Australia held a first-ever meeting, also by videoconference, of the four Quad leaders.
"This meeting seeks to build on and implement the historic discussions" in March, the State Department said.
"They welcomed the opportunity to continue regular consultations at the ministerial, senior official and working levels and to hold a second leaders' summit this fall," it said.
The Quad has also found support on Capitol Hill. The US Senate passed a bill in June that would establish an intra-parliamentary working group among the four nations.
Biden has described US competition with China as a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism.
Even when discussing domestic policy, like the massive infrastructure bill working its way through Congress, his administration frames it as a chance to show that democracy can still compete against top-down, authoritarian nations like China.
The White House also confirmed on Wednesday that it planned to host the first of two "Summits for Democracy" in December - gatherings of leaders of the world's democratic nations.
The other three members of the Quad have become embroiled in their own conflicts with China in recent years.
Japan has territorial disputes with China about the waters between the two nations. Tokyo has also expressed alarm about Beijing's increased sabre-rattling toward Taiwan.
The Japanese foreign ministry said on Thursday that the officials at the Quad meeting had also discussed the East and South China Seas.
Australia is enmeshed in multiple economic disputes with China after Canberra pushed for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, which first broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
In response, China has blocked billions of dollars' worth of Australian exports.
And India has fought multiple deadly border skirmishes with China over the last year, high in the Himalayan region that divides the world's two most populous countries.
Beijing has accused the Quad of working to "exaggerate and hype up the so-called China threat".
The State Department said the Thursday meeting also discussed "the importance of sustained international cooperation to end the Covid-19 pandemic in the Indo-Pacific and to promote economic recovery".
After the Quad leaders met in March, the four nations announced a plan to manufacture and distribute vaccines around the world, widely viewed as an attempt to counter China's own vaccine diplomacy.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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