The Quad Squad: Can It Contain China?

Can India, US, Japan and Australia contain an aggressive China?

- Raj Chengappa

Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. So goes an old Roman saying. With China under Xi Jinping baring its teeth at a host of nations, two major developments last fortnight show that a growing anti-China bloc, which includes India, is putting in place a bulwark against a belligerent Beijing.

First, in a surprising development, the US president Joe Biden, British prime minister Boris Johnson and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison jointly announced the formation of a trilateral security pact for the Indo-Pacific region on September 15. Nicknamed AUKUS, the pact was clearly a military alliance that will see, among other things, the US and the UK helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines. The grouping did not mention which nation they were preparing against, but it was apparent that it was to counter China’s aggressive military intentions in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the South and East China Seas.

Then, a week later, Biden hosted the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, the outgoing Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Australia’s Morrison for the first in-person summit of the Quad, a grouping of four democratic nations working on a shared vision for the Indo-Pacific region. The Quad, short for Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, was started way back in 2007 but lay dormant for over a decade as, barring Japan, none of the three other nations wanted to overtly confront a rising China. However, from 2020 onwards, the formation has moved with a sense of urgency and speed, with 2021 already seeing two leader level summits—a virtual one in March 2021 and a physical meeting last week.