France, India and Australia step up Quad-style cooperation, with China on the horizon

The three countries, an increasingly active diplomatic collective, are planning to increase their joint presence in the Indo-Pacific

In a veiled reference to Beijing’s criticism, India’s external affairs minister says ‘people need to get over’ the idea the groupings are a threat

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Indian army fighter jets on an aircraft carrier during the Malabar naval exercise in 2020, in which Australia, Japan and the US - the other countries in the Quad - also took part. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:28pm, 14 Apr 2021Updated: 8:42am, 15 Apr 2021

France, India and Australia have indicated they are jointly planning to step up their presence in the Indo-Pacific, modelling their closer cooperation after the Quad’s efforts in areas such as maritime security, according to comments made by their foreign ministers at the annual Raisina Dialogue.

The three ministers were speaking on Wednesday in a virtual discussion at the conference – which was organised this year by the Indian foreign ministry and the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation – that came after Australian foreign minister Marise Payne cancelled her trip to the Indian capital due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said the trilateral grouping, in its next meeting, would discuss “something similar” to the list of topics on the agenda of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – which also include vaccine cooperation, higher education and student mobility, as well as emerging technology.

The Quad, which consists of the United States, Japan, Australia and India, is largely seen as a measure to contain an increasingly assertive China. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called the grouping an “Indo-Pacific Nato” and said it presented a “big underlying security risk”.

On Wednesday, however, Jaishankar dismissed Beijing’s criticisms without naming China, saying that likening the Quad to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was a “mind game that others are playing”.

India’s foreign affairs minister S. Jaishankar says likening the Quad to Nato is a “mind game that others are playing”. Photo: AFP

“The idea that when we come together it is a threat or a message to someone, people need to get over this,” he said in defence of the Quad and the France-India-Australia trilateral, adding that the groups were for “national, regional and global benefit”.

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