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At the Hawaii meeting, the US, Japan, Australia, and China all denounce China and Russia, with all eyes on India.
While China and Russia are consistently and publicly criticised by the US, Japan, and Australia together, they have refrained from doing so in the Quad that also includes India.
The US, Japan, and Australia made some harsh statements against China and Russia over the weekend in Hawaii that may likely set the tone for the next Quad meeting, but India, a neighbour of Beijing and a strategic partner of Moscow, has never publicly criticised them in such multilateral venues.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles and Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada were guests of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin at the US Indo-Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii Saturday, as part of the Trilateral Defense Ministers’ Meeting (TDMM).
The Pacific Partnership Strategy for the Pacific Islands Forum, which stated that the “pressure and economic coercion by the People’s Republic of China” has led to the “undermining of the peace, prosperity, and security of the region, and by extension, of the United States,” was released shortly after the US President Joe Biden’s meeting with the TDMM, which was last held in Singapore in June.
All of the Quad member nations, including the US, Japan, and Australia, stated at the TDMM in Hawaii that China and Russia are “seeking to undermine” the international system based on norms.
Strategic and diplomatic sources claim that as the TDMM gains momentum, it is inevitable that the alliance would start to dominate the Quad agenda, forcing India to publicly and openly criticise China and Russia.
India is not a member of the TDMM coalition. Even though India refuses any type of military ties with the Quad, these nations participate in the Malabar joint maritime military exercise as part of the Quad.
ThePrint was informed by sources that the TDMM’s vision and agenda could easily bleed into the Quad’s agenda, which has only succeeded in indirectly signalling its unity and vision to China and, to a lesser extent, Russia, thanks to India, which also happens to be Beijing’s neighbour and Moscow’s strategic partner.
“The TDMM is surely going to now define and shape the Quad’s agenda, especially now that China’s aggression towards Taiwan and Russia’s war on Ukraine intensifies,” a diplomatic source told ThePrint.
According to the diplomat, the Quad acts more like a diplomatic forum after it was revived in 2019 from its older avatar. And it was given a fresh lease of life only because the pandemic happened, the diplomat said, adding that otherwise India would have been “reluctant” in its resurrection of sorts.
The diplomat also said that even if the Quad came to existence in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, the geopolitics has now “completely changed” and so has the world order post the pandemic and now after the Russia-Ukraine war.
“For decades, our three democracies have worked shoulder to shoulder as an anchor for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe,” Austin Saturday stated at the TDMM, referring to Australia and Japan as the US’ “very closest allies.”
“For decades, our three democracies have worked shoulder to shoulder as an anchor for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe,” Austin Saturday stated at the TDMM, referring to Australia and Japan as the US’ “very closest allies.”
Austin was quoted in a statement released by the Pentagon as saying, “We are gravely worried by China’s growing assertive and bullying behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the area.
“We see the trilateral between our three countries as only getting deeper and stronger, and we look very much forward to today” stated Australia’s Marles during the meeting.
He also highlighted at the TDMM that what Russia is doing to Ukraine in the ongoing conflict is something that Beijing is doing with Canberra by “exerting that same pressure”.
Japan said the international order has been “undermined”. “Today, the international community is faced with the severe security environments due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, China’s unilateral change of status by force in the South and East China seas, and [the] remarkable development of North Korea’s nuclear- and missile-related technologies among others,” Japan’s Defence Minister Hamada said through a translator. “The foundation of the international order has been undermined.”
Derek Grossman, senior defence analyst at the California-based think tank RAND Corporation, said, “I just find Australia, Japan, and the US far more comfortable airing their shared view that they need to do more to counter China’s bad behaviour. That isn’t the case when India is involved in these multilateral discussions.”
During a separate bilateral meeting between Marles and Austin that took place Saturday, both sides discussed China’s “aggressive, escalatory and destabilising military activities in the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the region”.
According to sources, Taiwan may also soon enter in the Quad’s agenda as tensions become more intense even as India continues to defend Russia.
“The United States and Australia are united in opposing actions that threaten peace, stability and the rules-based international order,” said Austin.
