Leaders of the US, India, Australia and Japan did discuss the “challenge” posed by China during the first meeting of the Quad, and they made clear that none of them have any “illusions” about Beijing, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said.
Addressing a White House briefing on Friday soon after the historic virtual Quad summit between US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the top American official said the four leaders have agreed to hold an in-person summit later this year.
The leaders addressed key regional issues, including freedom of navigation and freedom from coercion in the South and East China seas, the North Korea nuclear issue and the coup and violent repression in Myanmar, Sullivan said.
“Over the course of the meeting, a sense of optimism for the future, despite the hard times were in, was on full display.
“The four leaders did discuss the challenge posed by China, and they made clear that none of them have any illusions about China, but today was not fundamentally about China,” Sullivan said ahead of a crucial meeting with top Chinese officials.
Sullivan, who along with along with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken are scheduled to meet their Chinese counterparts Yang Jiechi, a member of the Politburo of the ruling Communist Party of China and State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18-19.
“This is our effort to communicate clearly to the Chinese government how the United States intends to proceed at a strategic level, what we believe our fundamental interests and values are, and what our concerns with their activities are — whether it’s on Hong Kong, or Xinjiang, or in the Taiwan Strait — or, frankly, the issues that we heard today from our Quad partners: their coercion of Australia, their harassment around the Senkaku Islands, their aggression on the border with India,” Sullivan said.