In a subtle, yet strong message to China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on Friday said that Quad is a peaceful resolution that is ‘not against anybody’. Speaking at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Annual Leadership Summit, Jaishankar said that ‘it’s important not to be railroaded into some kind of negative discourse and we should not fall for it’.

“I want to make one thing clear – Quad is a peaceful resolution, it’s not against somebody,” Jaishankar said at the virtual event. Acknowledging that Afghanistan is a challenge, he further stressed that the Indo-Pacific is an important region in the world and it should be based on a rule-based international order ‘respecting territorial integrity’. 

Underlining that China is a big player, Jaishankar said that there should not some kind of ‘ganging up’ against a particular nation. The messaging is important as it comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the first in-person meeting of the Quad grouping in Washington DC and met the Prime Ministers of Australia, Japan and the US President.

Avoid falling into trap of outdated western thinking: China said before the Quad meet

While the reported discussions in the Quad meeting made no direct references to China, the underlying messaging has been linked to the rise of China. Ahead of the meeting, Beijing had warned New Delhi, that India should not fall into the trap of ‘outdated western thinking’.

“As two major oriental countries, China & India should avoid falling into the trap of outdated western thinking. The western mindset of power politics and law of the jungle runs counter to the trend of 21st century——peace, development&win-win cooperation. It gains no support from the people,” the Chinese envoy in New Delhi Sun Weidong had said.