Biden to Join First-Ever 'Quad' Leaders Meeting, Morrison Says

[DonViejo]

Source: Bloomberg



By Jason Scott
March 4, 2021, 10:06 PM EST

Leaders of the “Quad” bloc will hold their first-ever meeting, as the four democracies of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia seek to counter China’s rising influence.

“This will become a feature of Indo-Pacific engagement,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Friday, without giving details on the timing of the talks, expected to be held virtually. “It will be four leaders, four countries, working together constructively for the peace, prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific.”

Morrison, who has seen trade hit by deteriorating relations with China, said he’d discussed arrangements with U.S President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in recent weeks. He expected the talks would be followed by face-to-face meetings, he added.

“The Quad is very central to the United States and our thinking about the region, and looking at the Indo-Pacific also through the prism of our Asean partners and their vision of the Indo-Pacific,” Morrison said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “So, yes, the Quad is very central.”

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-05/biden-to-join-first-ever-quad-leaders-meeting-morrison-says?srnd=premium

[Laelth]

1. I like it. n/t

-Laelth

[Aristus]

2. I think Vice President Harris could pull a lot of weight in these meetings.

The Indian people seem to be crazy about her.

[GentleAlien]

8. You do know that China and India are neighbors..

Pitting neighbor against neighbor doesn't sound like a great idea. At the moment Pakistan and China are joined at the hip. De-escalation b/w them and India is needed badly.

[Hekate]

11. Yes, they are, and China is leaning hard on India's water supply. They plan to dam the Brahmaputra

....River, which originates in Tibet and waters many nations on the India side. This is only one enormous issue created by China. They want to control India’s water supply for their own use and they want to claim all of the South Pacific for strategic purposes.

I don’t see where the US “pits neighbor against neighbor,” so much as a return to recognizing the complexities of international relations after 4 years of the US having a corrupt government and possibly insane president.

President Obama and then-Vice President Biden were in the right track with the Trans Pacific Partnership. The amount of garbage I read about the TPP from supposed progressives would gag a goat. China is ambitious and ascendant and they don’t play by any rules but their own. We will not win peace or good international relations by ignoring them, yielding to them unthinkingly, or irritating them for sport the way Trump did.

China needs intelligent and aware adversaries, and America needs allies.

[JI7]

18. China and India already have conflicts. Nobody needs to pit them against

each other. Those issues already exist which is the reason for this meeting.

[GentleAlien]

19. What has the US achieved in that region again?

Let the neighbors sort it out, we got problems of our own. Introducing a hyper-power in the mix only makes it more explosive. India is very much capable of achieving balance with China, why run to the US as the policeman of the world?

[JI7]

20. China is getting involved around the world. This isn't just

about india and China.

[GentleAlien]

21. Didn't we just leave a giant mess behind in the middle-east?

Plus we are still recovering from an insurrection (with its masterminds at large and leading a major political party), not to mention 500k casualties (a large %age of them avoidable). Not sure if we are poised to start leading the world again.

[JI7]

22. You don't want the US to work with other nations ? Trump isolated the US

it's not all about leading but about working with others.

[GentleAlien]

24. Again, I go back to priorities

China became a challenger because we a) got mired in the middle-east on nation-building projects, wasting trillions and losing an enormous amount of goodwill around the world, and b) Financialization of our economy with little focus on manufacturing, c) rise of the Consumer culture that Chinese took advantage of, selling us cheap crap. Now pls. tell me, which of these issues will be taken up by the Quad? Is the Quad going to re-train the 10s of millions of adults who are facing economic annihilation in face of Automation?? Is the Quad going to incent Americans to build and eventually buy American, potentially at higher prices?? Or to somehow 'repair' what we broke in the ME? To me, addressing the root causes of our slide on the world stage is something only *we* can do, not India or Australia? If it was up to India, they will welcome the outsourcing of ALL the backoffice/IT/call-centers job, and I won't blame them for it!

[The Mouth]

3. Very Good

China is an existential threat to us, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Anyone who thinks that 'American Exceptionalism" is a bad thing should realize that the Chinese (or we should say their political leaders) have had this same attitude, held more strongly, for about 2000 years. They regard us pretty much the same way the Spanish Conquistadores or the most imperialistic and racist colonists regarded the Native Americans- as barbarians, fit only for the most menial of labor sitting upon resources that are rightly theirs.

They have the huge advantage of being able to plan in terms of decades rather than two-year election cycles, and are every bit as convinced that they should be the world's sole superpower as any American or Russian ever has been.

I love the culture, and consider myself a Confucian in many ways as regards responsibility in public service and connectedness to the community, and generally practice Daoism as much as I practice any religion, but the *nation* of China is a patient, dangerous, and utterly anti-democratic foe.

Just my .02

[Hekate]

14. Thank you for your 2 cents. I think your observations are spot on...

In the long-ago, one of my professors observed that over the last couple of thousand years, Chinese culture has only made a major shift a couple of times, the last one being the Communist Revolution, in which they took back their hegemony from the West.

As a culture, they have been incredibly stable compared to Europe and America. The US, in particular, not only has a laughably short history, but just churns with change by comparison. Who are we to tell them anything?

[riversedge]

17. I like the longer 10 year planning. Hope they can make it stick

[Lonestarblue]

4. Good news. Now to loosen China's ties to the EU.

After Trump, EU leaders do not trust the US, even with Biden in charge, because they know that elected Republicans are in Trump’s pocket, as is the rest of the party. They’re just as aware as we are that we have a major political party that makes up crap daily, pushes conspiracy theories, and would reverse every single Biden accomplishment as soon as another Republican president is elected as president. And, given the direction the Republican Party is headed, their next candidate will be far, far to the right and will use conspiracy theories and lies to govern, and probably to destroy the world’s most successful democracy.

[needledriver]

5. Like the idea, hate the name.

When I read the headline I thought Biden was going to met with the Q’uad; Hawley, Boebert, Greene, Tuberville

[sdfernando]

7. LOL! Q'uad

nice. There is nothing wrong with President Biden (feels good to be able to type that and President now!) meeting with those 4 so long as he tells them like it is and puts the hammer down. Then sends them scampering back to the capitol with their tails between their legs.

[needledriver]

9. I can't take credit for it!

I saw a meme about it and thought it was a worthy nickname.

[Botany]

6. Hello central casting? Send me a leader. Grown ups are back.

Link to tweet

Didn't Trump yell @ Australia's P.M. on the phone and tell the President of India that
they didn't have a border w/China?

[lagomorph777]

10. That photo is driving me crazy.

Can't somebody retouch the donut dust off of his jacket?

[speak easy]

12. What about South Korea?

[Leith]

15. I wondered that, too

New Zealand, the Philippines, and Taiwan should have representation as well.

[speak easy]

16. Sadly, we can leave out Duterte's Philippines from any useful forum.

[LiberalLovinLug]

13. OMG. I thought that said, Biden to join the Squad!

[BlueWavePsych]

23. Yes! We need an 'ASEAN NATO'