The Quad’s message to China | The View From India

This article forms a part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. The Foreign Ministers of the Australia-India-Japan-United States Quad, who met in Melbourne on Friday for their fourth ministerial meeting, announced a number of initiatives that underlined the grouping’s widening scope, from speeding up the delivery of more than a billion Covid vaccines to be manufactured in India and holding a special meet on climate change this year, to stepping up efforts to ensure maritime security in the region. The Quad also made a veiled reference to China’s actions in the South and East China seas, reaffirming a commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific “in which states strive to protect the interests of their people, free from coercion.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry, expectedly, issued a response calling the Quad “only a tool to contain China” and “a deliberate move to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and cooperation”. A group of senior parliamentarians in Sri Lanka, including some aligned to the government, have called for an “orderly negotiated postponement” of outstanding foreign debt, and corrective policy measures including a “strong social welfare scheme”, to combat the island nation’s economic crisis. The rift over the MCC agreement and development grant of more than $500 million, which has divided Mr. Deuba’s National Congress party and his coalition partner Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Communist party, is being watched closely by India as it could not only affect the stability of the government but also play a decisive role in local elections set for May 13 and general elections later this year.