The first full-time Safety Quadrilateral Safety Safety Summit (QUAD) was held on the eve of Washington, which, in addition to the United States, are part of Australia, India and Japan. Kommersant writes that Moscow sees in it a variety of “Asian NATO”, in which the United States will gradually attract new and new members.
Quad was formed in 2017, but only this Friday leaders of this structure – US President Joe Biden, as well as the premieres of Australia, India and Japan Scott Morrison, Narendra Mod and Yoshihide Suga – held their first full-time summit. At a lower level, the interaction in the “four” has been going on for a long time: diplomats and military in regular contact, there are several specialized working groups, joint naval exercises are held.
As clarified in the White House, during the Summit of the heads of states Quad focused on the “deepening links and promotion of practical cooperation” in areas such as the fight against COVID-19, overcoming the climate crisis, partnership in the field of new technologies and cyberspace, and also “Promoting the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Region”.
In the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of Belarus, the Fridays eventually criticized, stating that regional cooperation mechanisms should not be directed against third countries and undermine their interests. The representative of the ministry Zhao Liajun called Quad “closed click”, whose activities are “doomed to failure.”
In Moscow, to a new association is no less critical than in Beijing. “This is actually about the new military-political unit with a pronounced pro-American character,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, said in an interview with the newspaper “Arguments and Facts”. – In essence, Quad is a preotica of an Asian analogue of NATO. Washington will try to draw in this organization and other countries mainly for anti-Chinese and anti-Russian policies. “
Kommersant notes that the Russian authorities are concerned that in the Asia-Pacific, with the assistance of the United States, a whole network of new structures are formed, which, unlike, for example, the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN), with which Moscow and Beijing are in close dialogue, are not “inclusive”, that is, open to all countries of the region.
In an interview with the South Korean media, Sergey Lavrov expressed concern about the fact that the Asia-Pacific region is trying to “reformat” in Indo-Pacific, that is, excluding Russia, and China.
Increasing the control of Washington over this region, is directed, according to Moscow, and the newest security alliance: American-British-Australian Aukus.
On the eve of the Quad Summit in the White House, they emphasized that the “Indo-Pacific” direction was erected by the administration of Joe Bayiden in the rank of “priority”.