NEW DELHI: The coming together of United States, Australia, Japan and Indiais not an alliance, but an engagement for the sake of freedom ofnavigation, said army chief General Bipin Rawat here on Tuesday.
“We were the original founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. Instead ofgoing for alliances, we have had engagement with various countries,” saidGeneral Rawat, while addressing students of Government LawInstitute-Mumbai, at the South Block of the Central Secretariat.
“We are getting into an engagement with them, to ensure there is freedom ofnavigation in the oceans, the Indian Ocean, where 70 percent of the worldtrade passes through,” General Rawat told visiting students who queried thearmy chief on the strategic partnership with the Pacific powers.
The engagement came after an informal dialogue — Quadrilateral SecurityDialogue — was initiated in 2007 by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Australia Prime Minister John Howard andformer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
There was a temporary fall out following Australia’s withdrawal duringKevin Rudd’s tenure as Prime Minister but was re-established when the fourcountries met on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in November 2017 inManila, Malaysia. The meeting was seen as a move to counter China.