Quadrilateral Security Dialogue
Channel: the aleatoric learning channel
Date: 2021-08-16

Widely viewed as intending to curb "China's growing power," the Quad's joint statement drew criticism from China's foreign ministry, which said the Quad "Openly incites discord" among regional powers in Asia. 2004 tsunami cooperation In 2021, some commentators wrote that an ad-hoc Tsunami Core Group in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami may have been an early precursor to the Quad. The South China Sea The nine-dash line refers to the ill-defined demarcation line used by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, for their claims of the major part of the South China Sea. These moves appeared to "Institutionally alienate" China, the Association of South-East Asian Nations, and promote a "Washington-centric" ring of alliances in Asia.The Japanese Prime Minister succeeding Abe, Taro Aso, downplayed the importance of China in the Japan-India pact signed following the creation of the Quadrilateral, stating, "There was mention of China - and we do not have any assumption of a third country as a target such as China." Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon similarly argued that the defense agreement was long overdue because of Indian freight trade with Japan, and did not specifically target China. China's foreign policy under Xi In 2012, Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, succeeding the leader of China. Xi has taken a hard-line on security issues as well as foreign affairs, projecting a more nationalistic and assertive China on the world stage than was the case with China's peaceful rise policy advanced by Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao. A 2019 article in Voice of America that compared China and Vietnam's island building campaign in the South China Sea similarly noted that the reason why Vietnam in contradistinction to China has been subject to little international criticism and even support was because of the slower speed and widely perceived defensive nature of its island-building project. The meeting included discussion of China's increased prominence in the South China Sea, and may have signaled U.S. president Trump's interest in reviving a formal Quadrilateral. An Asian NATO? Following the 2020 Malabar naval exercises, American secretary of state and former CIA director Mike Pompeo met with members of the quad to discuss converting the security arrangement into an "Asian NATO" with "Shared security and geopolitical goals." One commentator at the South China Morning Post described the concept as "a bulwark against the rise of China," and a Chinese diplomat protested the concept as an attempt to "Wind back the clock of history:" What it pursues is to trumpet the Cold War mentality and to stir up a confrontation among different groups and blocs and to stoke geopolitical competition. In a similar move, on 16 September 2020, France, the UK and Germany together submitted a note verbale to the United Nations, which reaffirmed that the integrity of UNCLOS needs to be maintained, stating that China's territorial claims in the South China Sea do not comply with it.