TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) – Leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (“Quad”), which brings together the United States, Japan, Australia and India, promised on Tuesday, at the start of their Tokyo summit, to remain united for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and to combat climate change.
Discussions should focus on ways to counter China’s growing stranglehold in the region and to resolve differences on issues such as Russia.
US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are expected to hold bilateral meetings.
An American representative said that Taiwan was not on the official program of the discussions but that the file should be evoked, after Joe Biden broke with conventions by saying he was ready to use force to defend the democratic island, which China considered a renegade province.
India has frustrated the United States over the issue of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, with Washington seeing a lack of support for sanctions against Moscow.
However Western officials have decided to press Narendra Modi privately and tactfully, preferring to emphasize their common view on China – a more important longer-term rival than Russia, in the eyes of the United States. (Report Trevor Hunnicutt and Sakura Murakami; French version Jean Terzian)
by Trevor Hunnicutt and Sakura Murakami