How Australia is muscling up to China in four nation alliance

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will meet with US President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan to discuss Indo Pacific issues including the rising power and influence of China.

In a major advance for Australia’s peace and security in the Indo Pacific Prime Minister Scott Morrison will meet with US President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan.

The first leaders-level meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or “Quad” will take place virtually on Saturday, and include India’s Narendra Modi and Japan’s Yoshihide Suga.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison first spoke with US President Joe Biden in early February. Picture: Adam Taylor

Mr Morrison said he was looking forward to meeting with the leaders, describing the high-level talks as a sign of the longstanding dialogue moving to a “whole new level”.

“(It’s) something Australia has been championing for many years and now particularly under my prime ministership, this has been a key focus that we could get the quad leaders meeting together,” he said.

“The Indo Pacific is our world.

“This is where Australians and our security, our peace and stability that all Australians rely on for their freedom and for them being able to live their lives in the way they wish to in a liberal democracy.”

US President Joe Biden has indicated his administration will take the Quad and Indo Pacific seriously during his term in office. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

The Quad is widely seen as a counterbalance to the rising power and influence of China, but leaders are also expected to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and supply chain security.

“What the Quad is about is ensuring an open, independent, sovereign Indo-Pacific that enables all countries and nations within the Indo-Pacific to engage with each other,” Mr Morrison said.

“It is four like-minded countries coming together that have specific issues within the Indo-Pacific region, which has fantastic relationships with countries throughout the Indo-Pacific region to ensure all of us have assurances about peace and security in the future.”

In February when Mr Morrison spoke to Mr Biden for the first time since he became US President, the pair “affirmed” their commitment to the bilateral alliance and other international relationships through the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and The Quad.

The Quad is widely seen as a counterbalance to the rising power and influence of China.

“The Quad relationship, a high priority for the Biden Administration as it works with partners within the region,” Mr Morrison said at the time.

Observers hailed the move as a massive step for the group, which had previously only met at ministerial or bureaucratic levels.

Michael Shoebridge, Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defence, Strategy and National Security Program told The Daily Telegraph that the move was historic.

“Just four years ago it was unthinkable that this group was even going to be at a ministerial level,” he said, largely because the nations involved were keen not to offend Chinese sensibilities.

“Now it is something that three prime ministers and the US president, very early in his administration, are devoting time to.”

India's Prime Minster Narendra Modi. Picture: AFP

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Picture: AFP

This, Mr Shoebridge says, is because China’s “soft power is collapsing around the world”, and citizens of all four nations are deeply concerned about Beijing’s behaviour.

“When you look at the agenda around economic recovery and climate change and the pandemic, these all connect to the international agenda, but also to each leaders’ domestic agenda and their concerns about China.”

Prof Paul Dibb, emeritus professor at the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, told The Daily Telegraph that while the move might annoy China, we should not be put off by attempts by Beijing to portray the Quad as a “new NATO”.

“Some prominent commentators have used the phrase that this will be an ‘Asian’ or ‘new’ NATO,” Prof Dibb said.

“That’s propaganda from China’s United Front,” he said.

“It’s important not to fall into that trap. Article V of the NATO treaty ensures that a military attack against any member is seen as an attack against all members.”

“That’s simply not what’s happening here at all.”