Photo: MASANORI GENKO/THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/AP/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
Rulers from Japan, India, Australia and the United States meet in Tokyo on Tuesday (05. 05.2022) looking for a united front to put to China on notice, at a time when Beijing expands its military and economic influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
“It is about democracies against autocracies, and we have to ensure that we can comply”, declared the US president, Joe Biden, before the summit of the group of countries known as the Quad.
The appointment takes place at a time of growing regional anger with Chinese military activity, which has carried out flights of fighter planes, naval exercises and harassed fishing boats.
Biden declared on Monday in Tokyo that his country would defend Taiwan against possible Chinese aggression, which suggested a change in the traditional “strategic ambiguity” of Washington against Taipei.
Japan hosts Quad summit seeking unity on countering China https://t.co/Ezcr3iZIhk
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This policy, implemented since Washington changed diplomatic recognition of Beijing in 1979, is that the United States agrees to provide means of defense for Taiwan, but without making it clear whether it would intervene directly. On Tuesday, Biden assured that “the policy has not changed at all.” against the increase in Chinese military activities in the region, the development of weapons by North Korea and a territorial dispute with Russia over the Kuril Islands.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was accompanied by US President Joe Biden, who sent a strong message to China the day before about the consequences of an attack on Taiwan; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and blazing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The Quad quartet, which seeks to establish itself as a counterweight to the growing influence of Beijing, send a message of respect for the sovereignty of nations, including Ukraine, whose situation has caused concern about a potential similar contingent in the region.
It is believed that China is following the development of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the response of other powers, in order to outline its own strategy towards Taiwan, to the which it considers a renegade province that must be reunited.
Beijing has increased its military activities in disputed areas of the East China Sea and the South China Sea, so it is expected that the declaration will also address maritime challenges, including illegal fishing and other illicit activities, in which they will seek greater coordination. .