During US President Joe Biden’s visit to Japan, the approach of Russian and Chinese warplanes to Japanese airspace created tensions. Tokyo, which is rapidly taking off its warplanes, described the move as provocative during the Quadruple Security Dialogue (Quad) summit and expressed “serious concerns”.
The meeting of the leaders of the Quad group consisting of Japan, Australia, India and the USA was held in the shadow of Taiwan and Russia issues. The quartet stressed their commitment to ensuring that the Indo-Pacific region is free and open vis-a-vis China, whose influence is increasingly felt.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group did not target any country.
During the meeting of the leaders, Russian and Chinese warplanes conducted a 13-hour joint patrol in the region. The patrol of Chinese and Russian warplanes began when President Joe Biden backed out the day before by saying he could use force to defend democratic Taiwan. Biden said that there is no change in the US policy of “strategic uncertainty” regarding Taiwan today.
Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi described the patrol as a provocative act by Beijing and Moscow. “We believe that the arrival of this move during the Quadruple summit has made it more provocative than in the past,” the person said.
At the press conference held after President Biden’s departure from Tokyo, Defense Minister Kishi noted that Japan also took off its own planes and conveyed its “serious concerns” to Russia and China through diplomatic channels.
The South Korean army also took off its own jets after at least four Chinese and four Russian warplanes entered the air defense area. On the website of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, it was noted that the patrol, carried out for the first time after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is part of the annual military exercises. China and Russia, which have been conducting joint exercises since 2019, carried out these exercises in the second half of the year.
The leaders of the quartet said in a joint statement after the meeting that they “discussed their own country’s response to the conflicts in Ukraine and the ongoing humanitarian crisis”.
Has India been compromised?
After the quadrilateral summit, Kishida said that leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shared their concerns about Ukraine, and that all four leaders agreed on the rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
However, the description of the Quartet did not include the words “Russia” or “Russian”. This has been interpreted as a concession to India, which has long had close ties to Russia.
What does Biden’s Taiwan statement mean?
On the other hand, Biden’s views on Taiwan became the focus of delegations and the media.
While Washington is under a legal obligation to provide Taiwan with the tools it needs to defend itself, it has for many years pursued a policy of “strategic uncertainty” over whether it will intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the face of possible attack by China.
Biden’s statement yesterday that Taiwan could be given military support was interpreted as a rash statement by the US President, revealing his own personal inclination to protect the island country.
Biden replied, “No. Our policy has not changed at all. I emphasized this in my statement yesterday.”
While some say that Biden made mistakes and blunders about Taiwan, some experts argue that the President’s extensive experience in foreign policy and his statement alongside Japanese Prime Minister Kishida after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not a mistaken step.
Other experts and advisers say that during his Asia tour, Biden sent a clear message to China that “don’t do in Asia, especially Taiwan, what Russia did in Ukraine.”
Recognizing Taiwan as an integral part of its territory, China underlines that Taiwan is the most sensitive and important issue in relations with Washington.