India, Japan, Australia and the US: the return of the 'Quad' in the face of China's rise

Biden renews 'Quad' alliance despite pressure from Beijing

photo_camera AP/CAROLYN KASTER - Sept. 24, 2015 file photo, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice President Joe Biden at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

The concept of the 'Quadrilateral' or 'Quad' began to take shape when in 2006 former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe made public his foreign policy plan based on democratic values, suggesting closer ties with India and Australia to defend the freedom and prosperity of a 'wider Asia'. This 'wider Asia' would be linked to the United States and other Pacific countries, forming a network that would allow people, goods, capital and knowledge to flow freely.  The formation of the 'Quad' was intended as a counterweight to an increasingly powerful and ambitious China.

China's rise and changing military behaviour in the East and South China Seas has provoked much debate among US friends and allies in the Asia-Pacific region about how to respond. The strategy provides a critical geopolitical counterweight to China's growing influence and presence in Eurasia and Africa under Xi Jinping's OBOR initiative.

For its part, the United States embraced the concept with a view to contributing to maritime security, free navigation and military cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

The so-called 'Quad', consisting of the region's leading democracies, has figured prominently in these debates as a classic geo-strategic tool of "balancing on the high seas" against Beijing.

El ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de India, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Japón, Toshimitsu Motegi, la ministra de Asuntos Exteriores de Australia, Marise Payne, y el secretario de Estado de EEUU, Mike Pompeo, asisten a la reunión de ministros de Asuntos Exteriores de las cuatro naciones de Indo-Pacífico, celebrada en Tokio el 6 de octubre de 2020

Over the past decade, the idea of the 'Quad' has undergone several mutations. And once again, amid a further tightening of geostrategic circumstances in the region, it has attracted renewed attention from policy-makers in Washington, Tokyo, Delhi and Canberra. 

China's rise in the Asia-Pacific is causing shifts in the balance of power in the region. It is in response to this rise that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, commonly known as the 'Quad' for short, emerged.

The current power transition in the Asia-Pacific, underlined by the relative decline of the United States and the rising power of China, has important implications for most Asian states. While uncertainty about the future of international politics, norms and institutions affects all members of international society, Asian states are at the forefront of this transition. For them, the current power transition is not just an ideological contest over the shape and nature of the international political system, but is inextricably linked to their own national security imperatives in a variety of ways. India, Japan and Australia are at the centre of this strategic flux in the Indo-Pacific.

Los líderes de la ASEAN se ven en una pantalla mientras asisten a la 4ª Cumbre de la Asociación Económica Integral Regional como parte de la 37ª Cumbre de la ASEAN en Hanoi, Vietnam 15 de noviembre de 2020

But what interest, then, might the United States have in this alliance? Washington wishes to preserve absolute freedom of navigation. Commercial transit, especially through the Strait of Malacca, but above all the transport of military troops in the Middle East, requires a secure route through both oceans.

With China as a backdrop and its growing military power at the centre of their main concerns, US President Joe Biden and his Administration announced on Thursday 18 February that they are holding in-depth talks with the top diplomatic leaders of the 'Quad', and preparing for an upcoming summit that Washington wants to turn into "a new NATO" in Asia, despite China's warnings.

Portaaviones y buques de guerra participan en la segunda fase del ejercicio naval Malabar, un ejercicio conjunto formado por India, Estados Unidos, Japón y Australia, en el norte del Mar Arábigo el martes 17 de noviembre de 2020

The virtual exchanges covered a range of issues, including Iran, the coronavirus pandemic and relations with China and Russia, several sources say. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "underscored the US commitment to act in a coordinated manner to overcome global challenges," said US diplomatic spokesman Ned Price. This contrasts sharply with the Trump administration's "America First" and "go it alone" policies. Blinken and his counterparts "affirmed the central role of the transatlantic relationship in addressing security, climate, economic, health and other challenges facing the world," Price said.

"A 'Quad' summit would not be a surprise, as the security alliance against China in the Asia-Pacific is an ongoing US strategy," said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Beijing's Renmin University, as quoted by the South China Morning Post. However, Yinhong expects the 'Quad' to become a "mini-NATO" for the Asia-Pacific, after the UK expressed its desire to join.

India, Estados Unidos, Japón y Australia, los cuatro países forman el Diálogo Cuadrilateral de Seguridad, o ‘Quad’

Meanwhile, statements on China have multiplied in recent days within the new US administration. For example, the new defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, described China as a "constant threat" to the Pentagon during a Senate hearing. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, said that in the face of China's growing threat to Taiwan, US engagement with the "rogue island" must be "crystal clear". Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, called China a "critical strategic competitor".

Undoubtedly, China's growing assertiveness and perceived threat to some of its neighbours, particularly in the maritime area of Southeast Asia, as well as its increased determination to defend its territorial claims in the South China Sea, has contributed to the revival of the regional "Indo-Pacific" narrative. And, alongside this narrative, the key point of 'Quad' formation as an alliance between Japan, India, Australia and the US, also referred to as the 'democratic security diamond', has gained traction.

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