China should not view India’s growing quadrilateral engagement with the United States, Japan and Australia as ?antagonistic? but as a ?useful? platform for regional as well as global cooperation in the political and economic spheres, an Indian expert said.
“I think the issuance of formal diplomatic protests to India, Australia, Japan and the US by China is due to apprehensions and assertion that the above four countries were g anging up against China in a security alliance,” B R Deepak, who has completed a research project with Chinese Academy of Sciences, an elite think-tank, said.
These reactions are ?unwarranted?, Deepak, an Associate Professor at the Chinese Centre in Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
The Foreign Ministry as well as some leading Chinese scholars have expressed concern over the emerging quadrilateral format meetings between these four countries as well as increased military exchanges and visits.
Beijing has reportedly sought an explanation from the four countries on the purpose of holding the first-ever meeting of senior officials of the four nations on May 24-25 in Manila.
“I am of the view that the quadrilateral talks should not be viewed as antagonistic of China and least so a case of ganging up against China in any fashion. This has been made clear in their pronouncements by all the parties involved.
“I believe that quadrilateral meeting confirms the readiness of these four countries to co-operate in such a framework, which is useful to political and economic ties at regional as well as at international level,” he said.