Quad summit a historic step in collective security

Chinese leaders attending the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing will be well aware of the historic first summit of leaders of the Quadrilateral Alliance. If they ever seriously doubted the determination of major democracies to stand up to Chinese belligerence and bullying, especially in our region, it will be demonstrated when US President Joe Biden and prime ministers Narendra Modi of India, Yoshihide Suga of Japan and Scott Morrison hold their unprecedented virtual meeting. The summit, the Prime Minister says, will “send a strong message” to the Indo-Pacific about Australia’s support for a stable, independent region. “It was the first thing I discussed with President Biden and I was so pleased that other leaders are so enthusiastic about the program, and President Biden is taking this to another level. It will be a historic moment.’’

As Paul Kelly wrote on Wednesday, the Quad, as it is known, is not an Asian NATO. Neither is it a military alliance. But it is of increasing importance to the strategic balance in our region. Collectively, it aims to do whatever is needed to ensure China behaves and observes a rules-based world order, like other nations. The fact that Mr Biden, less than two months after he succeeded Donald Trump, has made the summit one of his earliest multilateral engagements speaks volumes, as his spokeswoman said, about the importance he places “on close co-operation with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific”. That is good news for the region, and it should be a cause for China to think hard.

The focus of the summit will be on “maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region, climate change, and the economic effect of COVID-19”, the spokeswoman said. The main purpose will be the Quad’s relaunch in a way that puts “strategic grunt” and heft behind the warnings and concerns that each of the major democracies has about Chinese aggression and threats to freedom of navigation through the South China Sea. The summit is intended to show, Kelly noted, that with Mr Biden in the White House, the US, India, Japan and Australia believe there is strong collective interest in working together in devising responses to China. The aim is “strength in numbers” to send a clear signal to Beijing, while also reassuring the 10 ASEAN nations that are worried about being caught in the crossfire of a US-China power struggle.

Such messaging is pertinent as leaders at the National People’s Congress in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing intensify their menacing rhetoric. On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was deliberately ratcheting up the mood of a deepening crisis across the region. He warned delegates of the People’s Liberation Army that they must be “prepared to respond” to “complex and difficult” situations. “The current security situation of our country is largely unstable and uncertain,” he claimed.

Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe spoke of China entering a “high-risk phase”. He mentioned Beijing’s intensifying cross-border dispute with India in the Himalayas, “simmering” tensions with Japan in the East China Sea, tensions over the South China Sea, and technological rivalry with the US.

On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi highlighted tensions over Taiwan, warning Mr Biden “not to cross the red line” over the democratic island nation’s future and Beijing’s desire to subjugate it. There was “no room for compromise or concessions on the Taiwan issue”, he said.

Mr Wang issued his blunt warning as Washington’s commander in the Asia-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson, told a US Senate committee that China could invade Taiwan within six years as part of a strategy to supplant the US as the dominant power in the Asia-Pacific. Nothing better underlines the importance of the Quad summit. The region’s leading democratic nations carry a heavy responsibility in seeking to elevate the four-nation group into a force that will both meet the challenge posed by China’s threats and leave smaller regional nations in no doubt that they can count on help in dealing with Chinese bullying.

Mr Morrison’s refrain that Australia does not seek the “containment” of China but wants to ensure strategic balance in the region and that Beijing observes a rules-based order is sound. Mr Trump, during his turbulent time in the White House, did what he could but he was ineffective in mobilising regional support beyond Australia and Japan. The uncertainty that overshadowed his foreign policy played into Beijing’s strategy of undercutting regional confidence in the US as a reliable ally. The Quad summit will be an opportunity for Mr Biden to rebuild trust. It is early days, but the Quad could become our most important strategic grouping after ANZUS. Australia has a crucial role alongside the US, India and Japan to achieve the co-ordinated responses needed to counter Beijing’s belligerence.