the united states, japan, india and australia approved the first coast guard cooperation. experts: india, which is originally a short board, is deeply involved in the quad
2024-09-24
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on september 21, 2024, in delaware, the united states, us president biden, australian prime minister albanese (left), indian prime minister modi, and japanese prime minister kishida fumio attended the quad summit family photo. visual china photo
in the last four months of his term, us president biden met with the leaders of japan, india and australia at his home in delaware. according to cankao xiaoxi, the quadrilateral security dialogue (quad) was held at a high school in wilmington, where us president biden studied, from september 21 to 22. it is believed that biden intends to emphasize the degree of "unity" among the four countries in his hometown.
according to a joint statement issued by the white house on the 21st, the united states, japan, india and australia reached consensus and cooperation projects in the fields of health security, maritime security, key and emerging technologies, high-quality infrastructure, climate and clean energy, cyber, space and humanities. the joint statement also announced that the four-party coast guard joint patrol operation will be held next year, and plans to expand the "indo-pacific maritime awareness partnership."
lin minwang, assistant dean and researcher at the institute of international studies at fudan university, told the paper (www.thepaper.cn) that "the joint patrol operation of the coast guard is only the starting point of the cooperation between the united states, japan, india and australia, and is far from its end. it is not ruled out that they will further form a military cooperation force at sea in the future."
on september 23, chinese foreign ministry spokesman lin jian said at a regular press conference that cooperation between countries should be conducive to promoting regional peace, stability and prosperity, rather than forming closed and exclusive small circles that undermine mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries. "china is open to normal maritime cooperation between relevant countries, but the relevant cooperation should not target other countries under any pretext and should not undermine regional peace and stability."
is the maritime military cooperation among the four countries decreasing in appearance but increasing in reality?
as a sign of biden's foreign policy legacy, the white house has strongly denied that quad is just a tool for the united states to limit china's ambitions in the "indo-pacific region." according to politico, a u.s. political news website, the u.s. president's national security advisor said on the 21st that "the 'quadrilateral security dialogue' is actually not related to any other country. it is not aimed at another country."
however, according to multiple us media reports, at the closed-door meeting of the "quadrilateral security dialogue", biden declared that "china... is testing us throughout the region, in the south china sea, the east china sea, south asia, and the taiwan strait. this is true in all areas of our relationship, including economic and technological fields." us secretary of state blinken also announced the first topic of discussion - china - shortly after the meeting began.
during this summit, the quad mechanism of the united states, japan, india and australia approved the cooperation of the coast guards for the first time. according to xinhua news agency, citing japan's kyodo news agency, "the four countries will jointly curb the 'chinese illegal fishing fleet'". according to the british independent, the coast guard ships of the four countries will focus on the south china sea and its surrounding waters to carry out joint patrols in turn, which is expected to start in 2025. kyodo news also reported that the united states, japan, india and australia are considering allowing officials from japan, australia and india's maritime law enforcement agencies to board u.s. coast guard ships early next year.
lin minwang said that the coast guard is generally regarded as a paramilitary force, with the characteristics of both military and law enforcement forces. the united states, japan, india and australia will hold a four-party coast guard joint patrol operation, which reduces the intention of the four parties to have maritime military cooperation. however, lin minwang specifically pointed out that "to a large extent, the joint patrol operation is a test and an important symbol of the four countries' maritime military cooperation. it is not ruled out that they will further form a maritime military cooperation force in the future."
the associated press quoted raji pillai rajagopalan, a geopolitical expert at the australian strategic policy institute, as saying, "the initial measures of the four-nation joint coast guard will be relatively mild, and will focus in the short term on establishing a mutually understood division of labor procedure." but what cannot be ignored is that "no matter where the joint patrols are conducted, it reflects the shift towards a unified direction of cooperation within the quad group."
"the united states, japan, india and australia have once again formed a relatively consistent strategic will in terms of 'jointly containing china', which is the basic internal driving force for the future development of the 'quadrilateral security mechanism'. this is also a reality that we (china) need to continue to pay attention to," said lin minwang.
india has gradually become deeply involved in the "quadrilateral mechanism"
japan's asahi shimbun believes that in terms of containing china, the biden administration attaches importance to the "quadrilateral security dialogue" between the united states, japan, india and australia. however, hiroshi shiratori, a professor at japan's hosei university, commented that fumio kishida has announced that he "will not participate in the ldp presidential election." for fumio kishida, who has "stepped down," attending the quad leaders' meeting will not decide anything.
on september 27, the japanese liberal democratic party will hold a presidential election. the current liberal democratic party president fumio kishida will step down, and the newly elected president will take over as the prime minister of japan. biden will also end his presidential term in january next year, which casts a shadow of uncertainty over the development of the "quad" mechanism. the us political news website politico pointed out that biden's purpose in this dialogue is to declare that the development of the "quad" mechanism will go beyond the term of the current leaders. the leaders of the four countries are all worried about the uncertainty of this year's us election. if republican candidate trump wins the election, this alliance may be diluted.
biden tried to ease such concerns through this dialogue. under the coordination of the united states, the other three countries unanimously supported india to host the 2025 "quadrilateral security dialogue" leaders' summit. according to singapore's lianhe zaobao, the leaders of the four countries all expressed confidence in the continued development of the "quadrilateral security dialogue".
in this regard, lin minwang observed that although there is uncertainty in the "quadrilateral mechanism" due to the political changes in the united states and japan, we also need to see a basic reality - since the restart of the four-country cooperation in 2018, many impossibilities have gradually become possible under the framework of the quad mechanism.
this summit has made new progress based on the achievements of the previous three summits. for example, the summit expanded the "indo-pacific maritime situational awareness partnership" established two years ago to the indian ocean. biden announced that the two countries will expand their global strategic partnership during his meeting with indian prime minister modi. in addition, biden also particularly praised modi's visits to poland and ukraine, his calls for peace, and the humanitarian assistance provided to ukraine.
"biden's announcement to upgrade the relationship between the united states and india does put modi in a very important position," lin minwang further analyzed. "however, this also shows that india is still the weak link in the quadrilateral security mechanism of the united states, japan, india and australia. the progress of the quad cooperation is slow, and india has long played the role of 'dragging its feet'. secondly, modi's visit to moscow in july put some pressure on the united states and japan, making the united states spend more energy on 'winning over' india."
india has long adhered to "non-alignment" or "strategic autonomy" in its foreign policy, so it can maneuver easily among competing countries. lin minwang analyzed to the paper that modi has always sought to integrate into the us camp while also trying to maintain some diplomatic balance.
the japan times believes that the united states and india may have found a middle ground on traditional and non-traditional security issues in the indo-pacific region - at least found some starting point for cooperation.
"india has gradually become deeply involved in the quadrilateral security dialogue between the united states, japan, india and australia and is no longer a passive role. in a sense, india is an extremely important member of the mechanism," lin minwang further pointed out.
the "quadrilateral security dialogue" not only provides india with an opportunity to demonstrate its international influence, but also creates a basis for it to strengthen cooperation with the united states and other western countries.
according to a report by the hindustan times on the 23rd, during his visit to the united states, in addition to attending the "quadrilateral security dialogue" and the un general assembly, modi also specially arranged talks with executives of top american technology companies to strengthen india and the united states' cooperation in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors. modi hopes to attract more american capital and technology into india and promote india's economic transformation and industrial upgrading.
modi met with google ceo sundar pichai and adobe ceo shantanu narayen at a roundtable with ceos of american technology companies. after the meeting, modi wrote on social media: "a fruitful roundtable meeting with ceos of technology companies in new york was held to discuss issues related to technology, innovation, etc., and also to highlight india's achievements in this field. i am very happy to see that people have great optimism about india."
according to bloomberg on september 23, the united states and india reached an agreement to jointly build a chip manufacturing plant in india to strengthen modi's efforts to strengthen the country's manufacturing industry.
thepaper.cn reporter yang wenqin
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