As Trump woos China, the Quad grouping drifts towards irrelevance
Key takeaways
- As Washington courts Beijing and shifts military focus away from Asia, analysts across the region say the Quad is increasingly struggling to define its purpose.
- Their grouping — the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue alliance, better known as the Quad — has not been very different in recent months.
- The United States began shifting its armada from the Asia Pacific to the Middle East at the outset of its war on Iran alongside Israel in February.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
As Washington courts Beijing and shifts military focus away from Asia, analysts across the region say the Quad is increasingly struggling to define its purpose.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo. Officials from Australia, India and the US arrive for a Quad meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on July 29, 2024 [Kiyoshi Ota/Pool via Getty Images]By Urooba Jamal Published On 26 May 202626 May 2026As the foreign ministers of India, Japan and Australia lined up with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a “family photograph” at the start of a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, their body language was stiff, with only the top Indian diplomat, S Jaishankar, trying to smile.
Their grouping — the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue alliance, better known as the Quad — has not been very different in recent months. For nearly two decades, multiple iterations of the Quad have attempted to forge a collective plan to counterbalance China’s rise in the Asia Pacific.