Veiled references to China
It is not that easy to brush aside the China factor from the Quad deliberations, no matter how the ministers try to do so. Ever since the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) came into existence in its first avatar in 2007, the rise of China has been a constant factor that drove the grouping’s agenda and perceived role as a regional balance of power mechanism. The fact that China successfully managed to persuade Australia to come out of the Quad just a year after its formation says a lot about how Beijing perceive the grouping. Today, Russia and China are perhaps the only two countries that denounce the Quad as part of U.S.-led efforts to give rise to an “Asian NATO”.
Even though the foreign ministers categorically denied any military or “hard security” role for the Quad in their latest meeting in New Delhi, the joint statement had veiled references to China’s belligerent actions in its neighbourhood. It stated, “…We reiterate the importance of adherence to international law, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South and East China Seas. We strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo or increase tensions in the area. We express serious concern at the militarization of disputed features, the dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities…”
All these would amount to indirectly equipping the concerned regional countries, particularly middle and smaller powers, to face up to China. Showing its disapproval to the Quad joint statement, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing responded by stating that, “We believe that state-to-state cooperation needs to be consistent with the trend of peace and development, rather than be about putting up exclusionary blocs.” Today, the broad range of areas where the Quad countries collaborate with each other happens to be also the arenas for strategic competition with China, even though they don’t wish to acknowledge it explicitly.
Upcoming summit and naval exercise in Australia
There was a time when Australia was the reason for the disbandment of the Quad, but today it is a central pillar of the grouping. The next Quad summit will be hosted by Australia in Sydney later this year. Australia will also be the host the 2023 Malabar naval exercise, with all the four Quad navies to participate for the fourth consecutive year. Australia’s navy took part in the Malabar exercise for the first time in 2007. However, after being pulled out from the grouping in the following year, it took more than a decade for Australia to come back to the exercise in 2020. The war games have its origin in 1992 as an annual bilateral exercise between the Indian and American navies. Later in 2015, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force joined the exercise as a permanent participant.