Quad shows concern about China’s ‘malign power’
   Date :07-Oct-2020

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TOKYO :
 
JAPAN’S new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday at a meeting with the US and other diplomats that their “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” initiative, a concept to counter China’s growing assertiveness, is more important than ever amid challenges from the coronavirus pandemic. The Foreign Ministers from the Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad group — the US, Japan, India and Australia — were gathering in Tokyo for their first in-person talks since the coronavirus pandemic began. The international community faces multiple challenges as it tries to resolve the pandemic, and “This is exactly why right now it is time that we should further deepen coordination with as many countries as possible that share our vision,” Suga said.
 
He took office on September 16, vowing to carry on predecessor Shinzo Abe’s hawkish security and diplomatic stance. Abe was a key driving force behind promoting the FOIP, which Suga called “a vision of peace and prosperity of this region” and pledged to pursue the effort. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and their Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, were to hold their own session, without Suga, later Tuesday. Pompeo earlier met with his three counterparts separately and shared their concerns about China’s increasing influence in the region, while reaffirming the importance of cooperation among those sharing the concerns. Pompeo in his talks with Payne shared concerns about “China’s malign activity in the region,” while agreeing on the importance for the Quad discussions to “the promotion of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” according to the State Department.
 
Japan’s Motegi held a working lunch session with Pompeo and expressed hope that Japan and the US will lead the international society to achieve the FOIP. Pompeo welcomed Suga’s recent description of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific and that “I could not agree with him more.” On his way to Tokyo, Pompeo told reporters that the four countries hope to have some “significant achievements” at the meeting, but did not elaborate. Japanese officials say they will discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the FOIP initiative for greater security and economic cooperation that Japan and the US have been pushing to bring together “like-minded” countries that share concerns about China’s growing assertiveness and influence.
 
The talks come weeks ahead of the US presidential election and amid tensions between the US and China over the virus, trade, technology, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights. Pompeo is attending the Quad meeting, though he cancelled subsequent planned visits to South Korea and Mongolia after President Donald Trump was hospitalised with COVID-19. The President was released on Monday and returned to the White House. The talks follow a recent flareup in tensions between China and India over their disputed Himalayan border. Relations between Australia and China have also deteriorated in recent months. Japan, meanwhile, is concerned about China’s claim to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea.
 
Japan also considers China’s growing military activity to be a security threat. Japan’s annual defence policy paper in July accused China of unilaterally changing the status quo in the South China Sea, where it has built and militarised manmade islands and is assertively pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways. Suga, who had been Chief Cabinet Secretary under Abe, told Japanese media on Monday that he will pursue diplomacy based on the Japan-US alliance as a cornerstone and “strategically promote the FOIP,” while establishing stable relations with neighbours including China and Russia. He said he also plans to promote the FOIP during a planned visit to Southeast Asia later this month. Japan sees the FOIP as crucial to have access to sea lanes all the way to Middle East, a key source of oil for the resource-poor island nation. Suga has little experience in diplomacy. Balancing between the US, Japan’s main security ally, and China, its top trading partner, will be tough, analysts say. Japan hopes to regularise the Quad Foreign Ministers’ talks and broaden their cooperation with other countries. But each Quad member has its own political stance toward China and it would be difficult to agree on concrete steps even though they share perception of China as a common threat, analysts say 
 
‘Advancing key security, economic interests in Indo-Pacific a priority’
 
NEW DELHI,
 
Oct 6 (PTI)
 
INDIA on Tuesday said advancing security and economic interests of all countries having legitimate and vital interests in the Indo-Pacific remained a key priority. In an address at a ministerial meeting of the ‘Quad’ grouping in Tokyo, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also talked about its common position of ensuring a “free, open and inclusive” Indo-Pacific. The meeting of Foreign Ministers of the ‘Quad’ or Quadrilateral coalition comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia is taking place in the backdrop of growing concerns over China’s military muscle flexing in the Indo-Pacific. Besides Jaishankar, the meeting is being attended by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Japan’s Toshimitsu Motegi. “As vibrant and pluralistic democracies with shared values, our nations have collectively affirmed the importance of maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” Jaishankar said. “We remain committed to upholding the rules-based international order, underpinned by the rule of law, transparency, freedom of navigation in the international seas, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes,” he said.
 
 
The External Affairs Minister also said that it was a matter of satisfaction that the Indo-Pacific concept has gained increasingly wider acceptance. “Our objective remains advancing the security and the economic interests of all countries having legitimate and vital interests in the region,” he said. Jaishankar also mentioned about the Indo-Pacific Ocean’s Initiative which was presented by India at last year’s East Asia Summit. In November 2017, the four countries gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the “Quad” to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.
 
The first meeting of foreign ministers of the four countries under the ‘Quad’ framework had taken place in New York in September 2019. The second ministerial meeting of the Quadrilateral coalition on Tuesday is expected to collectively affirm the importance of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of growing Chinese assertiveness in the region. Last week, the Ministry of External Affairs said the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the four countries is expected to collectively affirm the importance of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.