As the US, India, Australia and Japan are set to hold their first Leaders’ Summit of Quad on Friday, a wary China on Wednesday hoped that the four countries will do things that are “conducive” to regional peace and stability instead of the “opposite”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga will attend the virtual summit, which is the first conclave of the top leaders of the Quadrilateral alliance, which was often projected in the official media here as an alliance against China’s rise.
Asked for his reaction to the first Leaders’ summit of the Quad, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that China believes that any regional cooperation architecture should follow the principle of peaceful development and win-win cooperation, which is the prevailing trend of the times.
“We hope the relevant countries will keep in mind the common interests of the regional countries uphold the principles of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation and do things that are conducive to regional peace stability and prosperity rather than the opposite,” Zhao said.
In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.