The Foreign Ministers of the QUAD—U.S., Australia, Japan and India—revealed tensions among the Asian nations over demands and policies coming from the Trump Administration. Under the title “Rubio wants Quad to deliver results, starting with critical minerals,” an article in NikkeiAsia notes that the second meeting of the QUAD since Trump took office is intended to “explore ways to deepen cooperation among the Indo-Pacific partners,” but that conflicts deflected the cooperation. “With Japan, Trump has hinted that no trade deal will be reached before the July 9 deadline, when the pause on his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs expires. The president called Japan an example of a ‘spoiled’ country, refusing to buy American cars and rice while exporting goods to the U.S.
“With Australia, the Pentagon is undergoing a 30-day review of AUKUS, their three-way defense bloc that includes the U.K. selling a nuclear sub to Australia, Eldridge Colby, the China-hawk who is overseeing the review, is quoted saying that that selling such a vessel to a foreign country amid production constraints at home weakens deterrence against China.”
The conflict with India over the military exchange with Pakistan was aggravated by Trump’s meeting at the White House with Pakistani army chief Asim Munir, which “did not go down well in New Delhi.” They quote Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar who said Tuesday the world must display “zero tolerance” on terrorism, and that “India has every right to defend its people against terrorism, and we will exercise that right. We expect our Quad partners to understand and appreciate that.”
