Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

According to Nikkei Asia,MKsports the Quad seeks to convene a foreign ministers' meeting in Washington following US President-elect Donald Trump's swearing-in ceremony on January 20. Since Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong have confirmed their attendance at Trump's inauguration, increasing the likelihood that the Quad foreign ministers' meeting will take place.

Notably, the Quad may not limit its activities in January to meetings: Japan previously disclosed plans for the bloc to conduct its first joint coast guard training exercises as early as January. This is widely regarded as another strategic move by the Quad aimed at containing China, rather than merely a multilateral maritime law enforcement initiative. It further underscores how the Quad has evolved into a political instrument for the US in its so-called great power competition. However, with the Joe Biden administration's time in office coming to an end, it remains uncertain whether this joint training will be held as scheduled.

On September 22 of last year, the Quad summit held in the US used harsh language regarding China's activities in the so-called Indo-Pacific region and expressed "serious concern" about the situation in the South China Sea and East China Sea. The joint coast guard training operation disclosed by Japan is one of the cooperation projects among Quad members established at this summit. The outside world believes this signals a clear intention to pressure China and indicates that the Quad mechanism, as part of Biden's political legacy, has fully shifted its focus to major power competition.

In fact, the Quad's establishment was aimed at containing China, with the initiative predominantly driven by the US. It functions as a strategic instrument for the Biden administration to align its allies against China on both regional and global fronts. While Japan, India and Australia each have their own interests in participating in the grouping, the Quad's fundamental nature remains aligned with serving US strategic objectives.

The "Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness," introduced by Quad, is designed to demonize China's maritime activities and tarnish its international reputation. It sought to generate panic and anxiety about China, undermining the legitimacy of the country's maritime actions, sowing discord between China and its Asia-Pacific neighbors, and potentially paving the way for a quasi-military alliance based on intelligence sharing. Using public safety measures as a pretext, the Quad aims to draw other countries and regions into this network. This information sharing network they are building, coupled with planned joint coast guard training exercises, represents a coordinated effort to comprehensively challenge China's maritime activities.

Moreover, the US-led Quad has clear exclusivity and a military focus, and ASEAN countries generally remain wary of it. The US has numerous similar "small groups" in the region, ranging from AUKUS to the US-Japan-Korea trilateral cooperation, among others. These minilateral mechanisms actually undermine ASEAN's leadership in local security matters and constrain its strategic options. This is what makes joint coast guard cooperation programs under the Quad unlikely to deeply engage in regional maritime governance; instead, they will only create further complications.

The author is a scholar specializing in national security strategy. [email protected]