The fuss made over Friday’s Quad meeting in Melbourne is quite out of proportion to the group’s significance. Australians shouldn’t take any comfort from rhetoric about democratic solidarity and common values. The bonds holding together the quadrilateral relationship between the United States, Japan, Australia and India are paper-thin when it comes to China, the core security challenge facing them. The four members are geographically spread, their security interests wildly divergent, and each has an important economic relationship with Beijing to protect. India is not going to come to Japan’s aid in the event of a security dispute with China, nor would Japan do much to help India. And Australians, brace yourselves for a shock: if we ever get into a shooting war with China, Japan and India won’t be there for us either.
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