A senior US Administration official told CNN-News18 ahead of the Quad summit held Friday that India is clear about their intention to avert ‘difficulties with China’, when asked about the Quad meeting of the four nations in the face of increasing Chinese aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
When asked about whether the motivation behind the summit is behind China’s encroachment on India’s northern border and other borders in the region, the official replied in the affirmative. “I do want to just say that the our conversation today really is about the Quad. In other conversations, we have seen actions by China that has ramped- up tensions with neighbors,” he said.
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“It’s not unique to India; we’ve seen it in other circumstances as well and — with Australia, with the South China Sea. And we’ve seen an increase in wolf warrior diplomacy in Europe,” the official said.
Thus, the official said, it was difficult to tell exactly what the motivation is, but assured “that Indian friends are very clear-eyed about both their desire to make sure that they are working closely with, in communication with China, to try to avert these sorts of difficulties, but also remaining resolute as well.”
Meeting with the leaders of India, Australia and Japan, President Joe Biden declared Friday that the U.S. and other member of the Indo-Pacific alliance known as “the Quad,” are showing they “know how to get things done” in an increasingly complicated corner of the globe.
US President Joe Biden hosted the Quad Summit today with his fellow leaders — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga — who are all grappling with a rising China that Biden has accused of coercive economic practices and unsettling military maneuvering.
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They made no direct mention of China as they opened the group’s first ever in-person meeting, but the Pacific power was sure to be a major focus as they headed into private talks.
On broader issues, Biden repeatedly made a case that the U.S. and likeminded allies need to deliver results on the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and other fundamental matters with the world in what he’s deemed a race between democracies and autocracies.
Morrison and the others seemed to pick up that message as they opened Friday’s summit.
“We are liberal democracies, believe in a world order that favors freedom,” Morrison said. “And we believe in a free and open Indo-Pacific, because we know that’s what delivers a strong, stable and prosperous region.
Meanwhile, China on Friday criticised the grouping ahead of the Summit, saying the formation of exclusive closed cliques runs against the trend of times, and it is doomed to fail. Asked for China’s reaction as the Quad summit is expected to address the challenges and rising risks Beijing poses in the Indo-Pacific region, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told the media that the quadrilateral grouping should not target any third country and its interests.
With inputs from the Associated Press.
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