Rush to Quad meeting is well worth the jet lag for Albanese and Wong

Penny Wong and Labor Leader Anthony Albanese celebrate victory. Picture: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

Anthony Albanese’s first big decision as prime minister-elect was the right one – to go to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue summit in Tokyo. He will be accompanied by his foreign minister, Penny Wong.

This is tough on both of them after a gruelling campaign. Albanese and Wong have families, too.

But the decision is a no-brainer. In Tokyo, Albanese will meet with US President Joe Biden, Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, and India’s PM, Narendra Modi.

Wong will meet her foreign minister counterparts.

This kind of early personal ­exposure is priceless. Also, all the Quad leaders have followed the Australian election. Biden in particular will be happy to have an Australian prime minister who more closely shares his views, and rhetoric, on climate change.

On the key strategic questions, Albanese and Wong have signalled bipartisanship and continuity. This is particularly important regarding the Quad as Labor once before very foolishly walked away from the Quad.

The presence of so many Greens and teals on the crossbench will make it much harder for an Albanese government to manage national security and ­defence policy effectively and ­coherently.

It’s good that Albanese should be able to reassure our Quad ­partners that he runs a ­majority government and he is going to lead a committed administration on security and alliances.

As democratic politicians, Biden, Modi and Kishida also ­appreciate the physical and human effort of schlepping all the way to Tokyo for one day of meetings. It is also the case that there are some underlying discordances in the Quad just now.

Japan, like Australia, has moved even closer to Washington on strategic issues, driven by ­resistance to Beijing’s efforts to achieve regional hegemony. Again like Australia, Tokyo has enhanced its political support for Taiwan.

And while Biden, like ­Albanese, is a centre-left leader, Kishida and Modi are centre-right leaders.

The main point of discord in the Quad at the moment has been India’s unwillingness to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. New Delhi pretty much shares the Washington-Tokyo-Canberra view of Beijing, but it has a very different history and relationship with Moscow.

New Delhi was driven into Moscow’s arms during the Cold War. Even since the end of the Cold War, it has been dependent on Russia for hi-tech military equipment at a reasonable price.

Concern about China has ­driven the US-India entente over the past 20 years. Yet many other factors have been at work, among them the success of the Indian ­diaspora in the US.

The Indian diaspora is highly successful in Australia, too.

India, in a sense, is the key swing nation of the Quad and one of the key global swing nations at this point in history.

Beijing has been so aggressive in its border dispute with New Delhi, and has such a contra­dictory view of the nature of the region and India’s role in it, that there are few capitals in the world with a more sober view of China than New Delhi.

However, India is also the ­fastest growing large economy in the world and in every dimension of power commands international attention in its own right.

So all the Quad members need to engage India for its own sake.

They can work across the Quad in areas like vaccine ­production and distribution and infrastructure finance.

Similarly, Quad members like the US and Japan should work to provide India with alternative sources of key technologies than Russia.

The Quad is an immensely ­important body and is still evolving. Quad co-operation in the South Pacific is critically important to Australia.

Albanese and Wong could not possibly serve Australia’s national interests more effectively than by attending the Quad meeting in Tokyo. It’s worth the jet lag.