Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: China’s near-panic at the coming together of four world democracies to go ahead with and intensify their cooperation under the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), viewed as a prelude to an ‘Asian NATO’, was visible in its contradictory reactions to the first Summit: it first dubbed it as a “copy of NATO’, then urged the Quad countries to ‘refrain from forming exclusive clique”.
Quad leaders—US President Joe Biden, Indian PM Narendra Modi, Australian PM Scott Morrison, and Japan’s PM Yoshihide Suga—had their first virtual Summit through videoconferencing on Friday.
Predictably, it provoked Chinese state-controlled media to launch a bitter attack on New Delhi, with which China is currently engaged in a military standoff. “India has become a negative asset of these groupings…It is, in fact, carrying out a kind of strategic blackmail against China,” said the Chinese Communist party-controlled mouthpiece Global Times, referring to BRICS grouping (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The tabloid’s diatribe, as in the past, emphasized that India, considered by the US “as the most important Quad member”, was “very inclined toward the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy”. It was viewed as a feeble attempt to drive a wedge between India and its historically close ally, Russia.
The paper said that “While the US is trying to contain China through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as Quad, or the ‘Asian NATO’, such ambition is impossible to realize.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a state councilor, had dismissed Quad in 2020 as a “so-called Indo-Pacific new NATO”.
“The strategy is to trumpet the old-fashioned Cold War mentality to stir up a confrontation among different groups and blocs and to stoke geopolitical competition, in a bid to maintain the dominance and hegemonic system of the United States,” Wang was quoted as saying during a visit to Malaysia last October.
Political observers said that China may also try to cut a side deal with at least one of the four founding Quad partners to derail the emerging group.
China’s foreign ministry said the Quad should not undermine the interests of any third party or form “cliques”. State-controlled media dismissed the Quad summit as an attempt to copy the NATO model.
“State-to-state exchanges and cooperation should help enhance mutual understanding and trust among regional countries, instead of targeting against or undermining the interests of any third party,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters.
“We hope the relevant countries will follow the principles of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win results, refrain from forming closed and exclusive cliques and act in a way that is conducive to regional peace, stability, and prosperity,” Zhao said.
In his post-Summit briefing, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla clarified that the Quad did not have a negative agenda. “As far as India is concerned, we have always said the Quad does not stand against something, it stands for something…which is positive, it stands for doing something in the realm of consideration for others.”
