Canberra: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to cement the Quad — a grouping with the U.S., Japan and India designed to act a counter to China’s growing might — into the Indo-Pacific’s diplomatic and security architecture.
A week after the Quad met at ministerial level for the first time last week in New York after the concept was revived in 2017, Morrison described the grouping in a Sydney speech on Thursday as “an important forum for Australia and the region” that “complements the role of Asean and Asean-led architecture.”
While not mentioning China in relation to the Quad — which was created more than a decade ago during the George W. Bush administration before going into a hiatus — Morrison said: “It is a key forum for exchanging views on challenges facing the region, including taking forward practical cooperation on maritime, terrorism and cyber issues.”
China’s increasing economic influence, military might and diplomatic footprint in the Indo-Pacific has triggered concerns among the Quad nations. The elevation of the discussion last week, on the fringes of United Nations General Assembly, from official-level talks suggests the previously informal framework is being strengthened to present a united front on regional security issues.
Australia and its main ally the U.S. are also concerned China may be looking to establish a military base in the South Pacific that would extend its military reach toward the Americas. They’ve been striving to build an alternative model to Beijing’s state-directed lending for infrastructure projects that forms part of its Belt-and-Road Initiative.
China has made its opposition to the Quad’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” clear — in March 2018, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the bloc was a “headline-grabbing idea” and warned of the risks of “stoking a new Cold War.”
Morrison, who held security talks with President Donald Trump in the White House last month, used his speech to reject claims that Australia had to choose between the U.S. and China, his nation’s largest trading partner.
Australia could “maintain our unique relationships with the U.S. — our most important ally — and China — our comprehensive strategic partner — in good order by rejecting the binary narrative of their strategic competition and instead valuing and nurturing the un-conflicted benefit of our close association,” he said.
Echoing some of the complaints made by Trump about the perils of globalism, Morrison — a fellow conservative, said: “We should avoid any reflex towards a negative globalism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-defined borderless global community.”
Morrison also said in the speech he would:
- Ensure Australia plays a more active role in standards setting, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade set to compile an audit of global institutions and rule-making processes where Australia has “the greatest stake”
- Visit India with a business delegation in January at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the two nations seek to conclude a long-delayed free-trade agreement
- Visit Japan early next year for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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