Today’s meeting of the heads of state of the “Quad"—U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—produced a Leaders’ Statement that outlines an array of issues on which they all purportedly agree, including an clear reference to the threat China allegedly represents to the region, without ever mentioning it by name. The only mention of Ukraine is the assertion that “we discussed our respective responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the ongoing tragic humanitarian crisis, and assessed its implications for the Indo-Pacific.” Biden also met separately with Modi and Albanese (see separate report).
That the partners “share the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific … and champion adherence to international law” is the statement’s unsubtle message that China opposes these noble ideas, having been accused of violating them many times by the U.S. and its “partners,” and is instead a threat to the “maintenance of freedom of navigation and overflight, to meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the East and South China Seas.”
