At a meeting in Hiroshima, the leaders of the Quad group—Australia, India, Japan, and the United States—took a veiled shot at Beijing’s actions.
A unified statement asking for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain” was released on Saturday by US Vice President Joe Biden and his three fellow group members without specifically mentioning China by name. The statement used diplomatic language to say, “We strongly oppose destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion.” It looked to be referring to China’s economic strategies to acquire influence over weaker nations as well as its military ambitions in the Pacific. The statement went on to say that “we express serious concern at the militarization of disputed features, the dangerous use of coastguard and maritime militia vessels, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities,” clearly alluding to Chinese base construction on former offshore reefs and harassment of non-Chinese vessels in disputed waters. The leaders of the Quad met while already convened in Hiroshima for a summit of the Group of 7.
Biden, Fumio Kishida of Japan, Narendra Modi of India, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were scheduled to visit Sydney the next week. Biden withdrew, citing the need to go back to Washington from Japan on Sunday in order to bargain with Republican opponents on raising the US debt limit.
Biden expressed regret for imposing the modification on the schedule and extended an invitation to Albanese to pay a state visit to the White House.
In their statement, they emphasized the Quad’s support for infrastructure upgrades across the broad Asia-Pacific region while also announcing that they wished to support such investments but would “not impose unsustainable debt burdens” on beneficiaries of assistance—a further apparent jab at China.
The “urgent need to support quality undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, which are key to global growth and prosperity” was one of the initiatives the Quad leaders emphasized. They declared a collaboration with the intention of using their respective nations’ experience in the specialized marine cable industry. They said that an ongoing pilot program for cutting-edge surveillance of illicit fishing will be expanded. As well as condemning “North Korea’s destabilizing ballistic missile launches and pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” they also expressed their “deep concern” about the oppression in Myanmar.
Since the previous summit of the alliance last year, the security climate has become much more challenging, Kishida said. India will host the next summit of the four nations in 2024, according to Modi.