Beijing said on Friday that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), a format for annual consultations between the US, Australia, India, and Japan, is “essentially a tool for containing and besieging China [in order] to maintain US hegemony.”
“It aims to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and cooperation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters. “As the Cold War is long over, the attempt to forge a so-called alliance to contain China wins no support and leads nowhere.”
Zhao urged the four countries to drop the “antiquated Cold War mentality” and change their approach to China.
The remarks came after foreign ministers of the Quad countries met in Melbourne, Australia on Friday. They issued a joint statement, pledging to keep the Indo-Pacific region “free from coercion” – an apparent reference to the accusations that Beijing was intimidating its neighbors.
The Quad members also vowed to “meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South and East China Seas.”
China’s relations with the US and Australia have deteriorated significantly in recent years, with the sides accusing each other of violating international norms and stoking tensions.
In September, the US, Australia, and the UK signed a strategic security pact known as AUKUS, which China similarly blasted as an attempt to undermine stability in the region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspaper on Thursday that Australia has “set an incredibly powerful example” by resisting trade sanctions from Beijing.
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