Virtual Quad Summit: Japan reflects on its relationship with neighboring China
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, surrounded by his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (right), on October 6, 2020 during the Quad summit in Tokyo.
AFP - NICOLAS DATICHE
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4 min
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is participating, this Friday, March 12, with US President Joe Biden and the Australian and Indian Prime Ministers, in a virtual summit of the "Quad", the quadrilateral dialogue for security.
The Quad was created on the initiative of Japan in 2007 to promote dialogue and cooperation between democracies in the Indo-Pacific region.
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With our correspondent in Tokyo,
Frédéric Charles
Like India and Australia, Japan does not want to be part of the Quad in an anti-Chinese front.
However, he appreciates that the American president has chosen the Quad to make it one of his first virtual summits.
And that he tries to show, unlike Donald Trump, that the Quad is not an alliance formed against a particular country.
Still, by putting the protection of freedom of navigation and respect for the law of the sea on the Quad's agenda, Japan is worried about China's territorial claims over a large part of the East China Sea, an important crossing point connecting China to the other countries of East Asia.
Japan is in a territorial dispute with China over
the Senkaku Islands
, south of Okinawa, which concentrates more than half of the American bases on Japanese soil.
Towards an Asian NATO?
Japan is integrated into the American military strategy in Asia.
It has set up cooperation with the navies of India and Australia.
Because he sees the Chinese claims as a threat to the freedom of navigation.
Tokyo is also in favor of a collective response to the concerns raised by the rise in power of China and an expansion of the Quad to Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) but also to Europe.
The Quad would thus become a more open forum where a set of economic, commercial or environmental issues and not just security issues raised by the rise of China would be addressed.
Japan does not want a geopolitical confrontation with China, which today is as important a trading partner for its companies as the United States.
Tokyo is aware that the American ally is seeking to make the Quad an alliance of democracies in the region which could turn into a military alliance, a kind of Asian NATO if China were to prove even more aggressive.
New impetus under Joe Biden
The Quad is an informal cooperation between four countries - the United States, Japan, Australia and India - which aims to coordinate diplomatic relations or even military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region.
The four countries are benefiting from this intelligence and security exchange like never before.
This cooperation is often seen as a counterweight to China's growing power.
But the statements published ahead of the summit were, in fact, careful not to mention Beijing, which for its part does not view this meeting with a positive light.
After experiencing a slump when leaving Australia in 2008, the group resuscitated in 2017, feeling threatened by the rise of China, especially in the maritime sector and the affirmation of tensions in the China Sea. from South.
US President Joe Biden wants to take a less offensive stance towards Beijing than his predecessor.
Indeed, the Trump administration's policies displeased Australia and India, two of China's major economic partners.
Since 2017, there have been numerous informal meetings between foreign ministers, but this is the first time that the heads of these four governments have met since the group was formed in 2007.
► To read also: The shadow of China hangs over the top of the Quad
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The shadow of China hangs over the top of the Quad