QUAD aims to expand regional cooperation to counter China

The QUAD group, consisting of the US, Japan, India, and Australia, is considering cooperation with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other like-minded countries to counter China’s growing influence.

Noriaki Abe, an official responsible for political affairs at the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi, told Nikkei Asia, citing the “India-France-Indonesia cooperation” as one example of the cooperation agenda. “There are many such ideas,” he said.

Speaking about the group’s “evolving structure,” Abe told participants at an event jointly organized by the New Delhi-based Center for Integrated and Holistic Studies and the Embassy of Japan that he “does not rule out the possibility of adding other like-minded countries to this framework” in the future, but “this possibility has not yet been discussed in the QUAD context.”

However, Abe referred to trilateral cooperation established by QUAD countries like the US and Japan with other nations, including the Philippines and South Korea, stating that the group is willing to expand such regional cooperation.

Abe’s remarks came after the QUAD foreign ministers’ meeting in Washington earlier in July and ahead of the four-nation leaders’ summit to be held in India later this year, the date of which has not yet been announced.

A source from the Indian government also told Nikkei Asia, without directly referencing China, that the group is making efforts to support the economic growth of coastal countries in the Indo-Pacific and to act against any “hegemonic” designs, including through cooperation with other countries.

“This is what QUAD is trying to do. It is working to ensure freedom of navigation in the region and to establish a rules-based international order,” he asserted.

Abe also touched on the issues Japan, India, and Australia have had with the US regarding President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs.

“We have many differences,” Abe said, adding: “Whether we like it or not, we need US engagement to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. We must not create any power vacuum in this region.”

To the question of whether QUAD could become an “Asian NATO,” he replied, “Probably not, because there are different security structures. … We have our own agenda, our own concerns.”