Biden proposes a Quad summit; this is why

[Klaralven]

The news site Axios reported on Friday that US President Joe Biden plans to meet with his counterparts in the so-called Quad – Japan, Australia and India – this month. Biden’s plan could transform the alignments in the Asia-Pacific region. Its impact on the India-China relationship will be profound.

Biden is in a hurry and would have a Quad summit even before he meets with the United States’ closest allies in Europe. Presumably, this dramatic initiative has come as an afterthought.

The Quad did not even merit a reference in the “first major foreign-policy speech” delivered by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 3 or in the document titled Interim National Security Strategic Guidance released by the White House the same day.

The latter document referred to India the following way: “We will deepen our partnership with India and work alongside New Zealand, as well as Singapore, Vietnam, and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, to advance shared objectives.”

The first news of the White House initiative came through a media leak by “people familiar with the matter.” Its optics matters, as anything that smacks of a tough approach to China appeals to US domestic opinion.

https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/biden-proposes-a-quad-summit-this-is-why/

[Botany]

1. Grown ups are back.

n/t

[speak easy]

2. Why isn't South Korea at this meeting?

[Irish_Dem]

3. SK is trying to improve its relationship with China, not make it worse.

[elevator]

6. We should be trying to improve our relationship with China as well.

Nothing wrong with tough, smart policy, but no need to make them feel defensive and excluded, as we did Russia by expanding NATO.

[Irish_Dem]

7. It is going to be hard to do this as China is drawing a lot of red lines in the sand right now.

The US wants to stand up to China on the territorial disputes, but also needs to make nice with them.

The Quad is the Asian version of NATO, so yes it is an aggressive move on the part of its members towards China.

China plays the very long game, and almost always gets what it wants in the long run.

[Klaralven]

9. Meanwhile the European version of NATO is not doing so well

TURKEY’S CRISIS WITH THE WEST: HOW A NEW LOW IN RELATIONS RISKS PARALYZING NATO

https://warontherocks.com/2020/11/turkeys-crisis-with-the-west-how-a-new-low-in-relations-risks-paralyzing-nato/

[Irish_Dem]

10. I don't envy Biden. Domestic and international fires to put out.

China and Turkey will be long term problems.

[Hekate]

15. Neither Russia nor China is a friend of the US, both are expansionist, & both are anti-democratic...

I am not the only one who sees this. You might be interested in the discussion in this thread from Friday:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2706926

[Klaralven]

4. Japan and South Korea don't get along

Japan-South Korea Relations and the Biden Factor

President-Elect Biden and his team come at a critical time for Japan-South Korea relations. In the past two years, the Japan-South Korea relationship has experienced one of its lowest points since the normalization of relations in 1965.

https://www.cfr.org/blog/japan-south-korea-relations-and-biden-factor

Adding South Korea would be a complication that might blow the whole thing up.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Trying to patch TPP back together...

we need to work with these allies to contain China.

[Klaralven]

8. Won't work with India in the mix.

India was not a participant in the TPP negotiations.

After Trump withdrew, the rest of the participants went on to conclude the CPTPP, which does not include India.

The negociants of the RCEP tried mightily to include India, but after a few years, India withdrew in 2019, allowing the remaining countries to conclude the deal.

The US won't join the RCEP because it includes China.

Both China and the US are possible members of CPTPP, but it's not clear whether the existing members are interested in renegotiating any terms of the existing agreement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_and_Progressive_Agreement_for_Trans-Pacific_Partnership
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Comprehensive_Economic_Partnership

The "Quad" is likely only a military liaison arrangement. I don't see India negotiating away any aspect of its sovereignty.

The Henry Kissinger "Triangulation Strategy" works wonderfully well for India --

>> HENRY KISSINGER: The idea of triangulation that we followed developed because when we — when I came into government, I thought China was the more aggressive because of Mao’s rhetoric, but Russia was the more powerful, but then through a series of events – and I thought they were together – but then through a series of events it became apparent that they were opponents.

So, when Nixon and I considered that, Nixon called a cabinet meeting and said to the cabinet, I’m going to try in effect to play them off against each other. That required positive relations with both of them. You can’t do the triangulation unless you have meaningful operations with both of them.

So, the principle which we followed when I was Secretary of State and what I instructed my subordinates to do was to make sure that you place the United States closer to both China and Russia than they are to each other.

If you know nothing else, just do that. That way both of them had a greater incentive to deal with us than they had to deal with each other.

https://nixonseminar.com/2021/03/the-nixon-seminar-march-2-2021-transcript/

[bronxiteforever]

11. +1 exactly.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. A Quad Summit is ok, but if something is to be accomplished, we have SEATO.

Just invite India and Japan to join. We don't need to invent a new partnership organization.

[Klaralven]

13. SEATO was formally dissolved on 30 June 1977

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia_Treaty_Organization

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. They must have done that while I was asleep. I didn't notice it was gone.

Now I feel dum.

[Klaralven]

16. I had to look it up - my reaction was, hmmm, haven't heard about that for a while!