Opinion | With Aukus alliance, US turns away from Europe and drives China closer to Russia and Iran

On September 21, US President Joe Biden gave his first address to the United Nations stressing that Washington is “not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs”. But no sooner had Biden stepped down from the UN General Assembly podium than he welcomed leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue to the White House.

In their first in-person meeting, all four leaders pledged to facilitate a free and open Indo-Pacific region “undaunted by coercion”, a nod to Beijing’s ramped-up military activities. The group has unveiled new initiatives to bolster supply chain security for semiconductors, maritime domain awareness and “secure, open and transparent” 5G network partnership – all the areas of conflict with Beijing.

One of the novel features – along with cooperation in space – was the announcement of the new Quad infrastructure partnership. This might be the long-awaited reply to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Notably, all countries agreed on a shared approach to Afghanistan and North Korea, signifying more comprehensive collaboration on issues of global concern. The decision to hold leaders’ summits on an annual basis reinforces the idea that the group is slowly moving towards its formalisation.

Earlier this year, the Quad states conducted joint military drills with France, which now could reconsider its commitment to US-led multilateral security mechanisms following Australia’s decision to terminate an agreement to buy submarines from France’s Naval Group in favour of nuclear-powered submarines through the Aukus agreement with the United States and United Kingdom. All four Quad states also held joint naval exercises near Guam in August.

China is wary of these US initiatives, accusing Aukus of undermining regional peace and calling the Quad an “exclusive clique” which is “doomed to fail”. Beijing has upped the ante in the Taiwan Strait, conducting a record number of military sorties near Taiwan.