Quad opposes N-threat in backdrop of Ukraine

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, on Friday denounced the threat of use of nuclear weapons in the context of the Ukraine conflict as “inadmissible” and opposed unilateral actions to change the status quo or increase tensions in the South and East China Seas.

A joint statement issued after a meeting of the foreign ministers of Quad, which groups India, Australia, Japan and the US, unveiled new initiatives to ramp up cooperation to tackle key challenges across the Indo-Pacific region. This included the creation of the Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism to tackle new and emerging forms of terror.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar chaired the meeting with Australian foreign minister Penny Wong, Japan foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and US secretary of state Antony Blinken, a day after a stormy gathering of G20 foreign ministers was unable to agree on a joint communique because of deep divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Quad foreign ministers discussed the responses to the Ukraine conflict and “concurred that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”, according to the joint statement.

The ministers “underscored the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter”, and said the rules-based international order “must respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency and peaceful resolution of disputes”.

Participating in a panel discussion with his Quad counterparts at the Raisina Dialogue after the meeting, Blinken said: “If we allow with impunity Russia to do what it’s doing in Ukraine, then that’s a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they may be able to get away with it too.”

Blinken indicated the engagements within Quad amid the war in Ukraine reflected the fact that the future is in the Indo-Pacific.

The Quad foreign ministers met a day after a brief interaction between Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on the margins of the G20 meet. At their first meeting since the start of the Ukraine war, Blinken told Lavrov that Russia should end its aggression and return to the New START Treaty that places verifiable limits on American and Russian nuclear arsenals.

The joint statement made a thinly veiled reference to China’s aggressive actions across the Indo-Pacific while pointing to challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South and East China Seas. It said Quad members “strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo or increase tensions in the area”.

Without again naming China, the Quad members expressed “serious concern at the militarisation of disputed features, the dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities”.

Over the past few years, China has created military facilities and artificial islands in the South China Sea and fleets of Chinese fishing boats backed by militia vessels have often been involved in face-offs with vessels of other countries in this region.

Jaishankar told the panel discussion that Quad’s origins are in “common good” and the grouping didn’t stand against “something or somebody”. He said, “We do stand for something. What I would not like to be defined as is standing against something or somebody because that diminishes me.”

The Quad foreign ministers expressed deep concern at terrorism becoming increasingly diffuse due to the use of emerging technologies such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and the internet, and announced the creation of the Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism.

The group, which will hold its first meeting in the US in 2023, will explore cooperation both within Quad and with Indo-Pacific partners to counter new and emerging forms of terror, radicalisation and violent extremism.

The joint statement pointed to the importance of peace and security in the maritime domain for development in the Indo-Pacific, and said the Quad will strengthen cooperation with the Indian Ocean Rim Association to address the region’s most pressing and important challenges.

The Quad Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Partnership for the Indo-Pacific is finalising standard operating procedures to facilitate effective and coordinated response to disasters and emergencies, the joint statement said.

After their meeting, Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said China had no reason to fear the Quad.

“As long as China abides by the law and international norms and acts under international institutional standards this is not a conflicting issue between China and the Quad,” he said in a rare direct reference to China.

Following the talks on their shared vision “for a free and open Indo-Pacific”, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong tweeted, “A positive and productive Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting this morning with Dr S Jaishankar, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa.”

The Quad was spearheaded in 2007 by late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe as an alliance of democracies, that China has described as an attempt to encircle it.

Though the Quad faltered after Australia walked away from the grouping, it was subsequently revived in November 2017 and then swiftly upgraded to the summit level in less than four years.

Quad members stress that they are not a military alliance, but a grouping of countries driven by shared interests and values, and interested in strengthening a rules-based order in the strategically-important Indo-Pacific region.