Biden, who goes into check in China, promotes the first’quad’ summit… India is variable

Japanese media such as Yomiuri and Sankei Shimbun reported on the 7th that the US Joe Biden administration, which was launched on the 20th of last month, is promoting the first’Quad’ online summit (USA, Japan, Australia, India).

According to reports, the US government held a quad summit online to discuss cooperation measures for realizing a “free and open Indo-Pacific” that President Biden confirmed during a telephone conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. I decided to open it up and started preparing for it.

The main agenda of this summit is expected to be a response to China’s maritime advance, Kyodo News Agency said. The Yomiuri Shimbun predicted that it is expected to exchange opinions on human rights issues in China such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uighur and countermeasures against the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).

Quad is a word coined after the first’quadrilateral security dialogue’ opened in 2007 by the United States, Japan, India, and Australia, and is actually an unofficial security conference created for the purpose of checking China. After being suspended for nine years, it was revived in 2017 during the Donald Trump administration, and two quad foreign ministers’ meetings were held in New York, USA in September 2019, and Tokyo, Japan in October 2019. The quad summit has not been held yet.

Yomiuri interpreted that the holding of the quad summit shows the biden government’s policy to counter China through cooperation with countries that share basic values ​​such as freedom and democracy. The US is also envisioning a’Quad Plus’ that will involve Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand in this partnership.

China, which shows a strong sense of caution in the Quad’s solidarity, is likely to rebel when the first summit is decided. China has actually embarked on a “quad retaliation” last year, by imposing tariffs of up to 200% on wines produced by Australia participating in the quad.

Accordingly, it is known that India, which is slightly distant from the other three countries in its policy toward China, has a passive attitude toward hosting the quad summit. The Biden administration has spoken to each country for a summit meeting, but India, which is concerned that it could over-stimulate China, has not yet made a definite answer.

The Sankei Shimbun quoted multiple Japanese government officials, saying, “Japan and Australia are positively reviewing, so if the Indian government agrees, the quad summit will come true.”

Tokyo = Correspondent Lee Young-hee [email protected]