New Delhi: Days before the first-ever official-level security consultation between the United States, India, Japan and Australia last month, China issued démarches to each of the participants seeking to know the purpose behind their meeting.

A démarche is a formal diplomatic communication made with the purpose of, inter alia, eliciting information from another State and reflects the seriousness of the issue at stake.

Unlike India, Japan and Australia are close military allies of the U.S. and their security cooperation has been going on for some time.

Commitment

New Delhi — which had been resisting the idea of a quadrilateral security meeting for more than a year because of its `encirclement of China' connotations — finlly committed itself to a dialogue with Japan "and other like-minded countries in the Asia-Pacific region on themes of mutual interest" during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo last December.

Concrete plans for this new quadrilateral dialogue process were firmed up after the visit to Delhi last month of Japan's Vice-Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi. And the first "exploratory meeting" at the level of senior officials took place on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) security policy meeting in Manila on May 24-25.

The U.S. was represented by Christopher Hill, Washington's point man for the Six-Party talks on Korea, India by Additional Secretary K.C.

Singh from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Japanese by Chikao Kawai, Deputy Vice Minister for Foreign Policy, and Australia by Jennifer Rawson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Largely mindful of China's concerns, however, the four countries decided to meet without any formal agenda and to not widely publicise the meeting itself or the subjects discussed. "In the run-up, the Chinese had démarched all four of us to find out what was going on, and I suppose we were conscious of thus not trying to create the impression of a gang-up against them," a senior official told The Hindu.

No wrong signal

"India," said the official, "certainly does not wish to send such a signal to China and I think at this time, none of the others wants to either." On May 27, Ms. Rawson told an Australian parliamentary panel that the four countries were not seeking to create a new security alliance and were only "looking at issues of common interest."

"Arc of Prosperity and Freedom"

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Foreign Minister Taro Aso have been aggressively pushing the idea of bringing New Delhi into the trilateral security process. For Japan, India is a key part of the `Arc of Prosperity and Freedom' it is trying to build around the "outer rim of the Eurasian continent." In practice, this `Arc' — which bears no resemblance to the actual geometrical shape — skirts almost entirely along the borders of China and Russia.

On its part, the U.S. has been quick to realise the value of a quadrilateral framework for dealing with strategic developments in Asia. In particular, the Bush administration has sought to build a patchwork of military and strategic partnerships around China with a view to "encouraging" Beijing to play the role of a "responsible stakeholder."

Since 2005, the U.S. has sought to include India in this network of "values-based relationships" surrounding China. Indeed, this year's U.S-Japan Security Consultative Committee joint statement includes, for the first time, a direct reference to New Delhi.

The high-level statement, issued on May 1 by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma sets out as a "common strategic objective" the task of "continuing to build upon partnerships with India to advance areas of common interests and increase cooperation, recognising that India's continued growth is inextricably tied to the prosperity, freedom, and security of the region." By meeting on the sidelines of the ARF, Indian officials hope the message went out that the new `quadrilateral' sees itself as an adjunct to Asean. "Just as the ARF itself is Asean-plus, the Quad is an ARF-plus arrangement. For example, anything we do on the maritime security front, or humanitarian front like tsunami relief, would have to involve the Asean countries".

The Indian, Japanese and Australian Navies worked together under U.S.

"leadership" after the 2004 tsunami and earlier this year, India, Japan and the U.S. staged trilateral naval exercises off Japan's eastern coast.

Though no date has been fixed for the next quadrilateral meeting, Mr. Abe is expected to seek to upgrade the process to the ministerial level when he visits New Delhi later this year. At that point, say officials, India will have to evaluate the inevitable signals any enhancement of this process will likely send to China and the rest of Asia.

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