Quartet of PMs in Quad legacy war
Malcolm Turnbull’s claim he fathered Quadrilateral Security Dialogue embroils four ex-PMs and produces unlikely allies.
Four former Australian prime ministers have become involved in a legacy war about Australia’s newest strategic agreement after Malcolm Turnbull’s claim this week that he effectively fathered the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Japan, the US, Australia and India.
The former Liberal prime minister, in an article for the Japanese Nikkei Asia on Tuesday, welcomed the formal establishment and virtual four-way meeting last weekend of US President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, India, Narendra Modi, and Australia, Scott Morrison.
Mr Turnbull said the historic agreement did not progress beyond the trilateral agreement during the Howard government which he argued was stalled and withdrawn under the Rudd government. He also did not mention Tony Abbott’s engagement with Japan and India and didn’t name Mr Morrison.
All three former prime ministers have reacted to Mr Turnbull’s claims and given sharply different accounts.
Mr Turnbull said former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe had been central to the formation of the Quad but it had not progressed under the Howard government and did not have a leaders’ meeting in 2008 when the Rudd government withdrew support after criticism from China. “By the time I became prime minister of Australia in 2015, Shinzo Abe was once again prime minister of Japan. He was keen to reinstate the Quad, as I was,” Mr Turnbull said.
“However, India had felt aggrieved by Australia’s abrupt withdrawal in 2008 and did not want to return to the Quad only to see Australia pull out of it again following stern words from Beijing.
“We began discussions in 2016 and by the following year not only had agreed to conduct joint naval exercises but to reinstate the Quad dialogue although, at that stage, between senior officials.
“The first meeting of Quad foreign ministers was in 2019 and with the leaders meeting last week, the dialogue is now fully restored.”
On Thursday, Kevin Rudd disputed Mr Turnbull’s claims and gave Mr Abbott credit for keeping the process alive between 2013 and 2015.
“I have many disagreements with Abbott, including his grovelling to China in 2014-15, but he deserves credit on the Quad,” Mr Rudd told The Australian.
“Abbott could have shut the door on Abe and Modi once they changed their countries’ policies on the Quad, but he didn’t.”
Mr Rudd also said Mr Turnbull had repeated a “Liberal myth” that he withdrew from the Quad in 2008 and “the Howard government ruled out any quadrilateral strategic dialogue from mid-2007”.
“Strategic circumstances have changed dramatically in recent years,” Mr Rudd said.
“We signalled that in the 2009 defence white paper which Turnbull attacked as a Cold War relic. Nonetheless, back then there was no regional support for the Quad. Now there is. That’s the key difference.”
John Howard said finalisation of the Quad was great and it made sense to include India.
The former Liberal prime minister said the forerunner of the Quad was the trilateral agreement and US president George W. Bush and Japan’s Mr Abe met him in Sydney in September 2007.
Mr Howard said some decisions of the Rudd government angered India but he said Mr Abbott had worked hard to revive the relationship when elected in 2013.
“When Tony Abbott was elected, he worked hard to create a strong relationship between Australia and India and Japan,” Mr Howard said.
“It was clear Shinzo Abe and Tony Abbott were good mates and they pushed hard on the trilateral agreement and good relations with India.”
Mr Abbott said on Thursday he did not wish to comment on Mr Turnbull’s article, but “I put much store on deepening our engagement with India and Japan and reviving the Quad and congratulate my successors on their work to bring it to fruition”.
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