<p>The United States is planning to expand NATO's presence in the Asia Pacific region using the Quad, Russia has alleged even as India has of late defended the four-nation coalition, dismissing opposition to it as a ‘unilateralist’ approach rooted in the desire to control choices of other nations.</p>.<p>“In the Asia-Pacific region, the United States and its allies are also creating restricted blocs, trying to draw the greatest number of states into their ranks based on anti-Russian or anti-Chinese principles,” Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, said at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent. “This can be vividly demonstrated by the arrangements under the AUKUS and QUAD,” he added.</p>.<p>The Quad is a coalition forged by India, Japan, Australia and the United States to counter China’s hegemonic aspirations in the Indo-Pacific region, albeit with a benign agenda, like development partnerships. The AUKUS – a new security alliance comprising Australia, the US and the United Kingdom – is aimed at creating a framework for the US and UK to support Australia in acquiring a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, again to counter military aggression of China.</p>.<p>Patrushev made the comment about the Quad in Tashkent soon after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at an event in Bangkok that the entire Indo-Pacific region could be benefited by delivery of public goods by the four-nation coalition.</p>.<p>“If there are reservations (about the Quad) in any quarter, these stem from a desire to exercise a veto on the choices of others. And possibly a unilateralist opposition to collective and cooperative endeavours,” Jaishankar said, delivering a lecture at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.</p>.<p>The External Affairs Minister’s comment was apparently intended to dismiss criticism of the Quad by China and Russia.</p>.<p>“Washington intends to begin NATO’s expansion in the region, relying on their potential,” Patrushev said in Tashkent a day after a meeting with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Moscow.</p>.<p>Moscow had earlier expressed reservation about the Quad and called it a ‘divisive’ and ‘exclusivist’ tool being used by the United States to implement its “devious policy” of engaging India against China as well as to undermine Russia’s close partnership with India.</p>
<p>The United States is planning to expand NATO's presence in the Asia Pacific region using the Quad, Russia has alleged even as India has of late defended the four-nation coalition, dismissing opposition to it as a ‘unilateralist’ approach rooted in the desire to control choices of other nations.</p>.<p>“In the Asia-Pacific region, the United States and its allies are also creating restricted blocs, trying to draw the greatest number of states into their ranks based on anti-Russian or anti-Chinese principles,” Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, said at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent. “This can be vividly demonstrated by the arrangements under the AUKUS and QUAD,” he added.</p>.<p>The Quad is a coalition forged by India, Japan, Australia and the United States to counter China’s hegemonic aspirations in the Indo-Pacific region, albeit with a benign agenda, like development partnerships. The AUKUS – a new security alliance comprising Australia, the US and the United Kingdom – is aimed at creating a framework for the US and UK to support Australia in acquiring a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, again to counter military aggression of China.</p>.<p>Patrushev made the comment about the Quad in Tashkent soon after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at an event in Bangkok that the entire Indo-Pacific region could be benefited by delivery of public goods by the four-nation coalition.</p>.<p>“If there are reservations (about the Quad) in any quarter, these stem from a desire to exercise a veto on the choices of others. And possibly a unilateralist opposition to collective and cooperative endeavours,” Jaishankar said, delivering a lecture at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.</p>.<p>The External Affairs Minister’s comment was apparently intended to dismiss criticism of the Quad by China and Russia.</p>.<p>“Washington intends to begin NATO’s expansion in the region, relying on their potential,” Patrushev said in Tashkent a day after a meeting with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Moscow.</p>.<p>Moscow had earlier expressed reservation about the Quad and called it a ‘divisive’ and ‘exclusivist’ tool being used by the United States to implement its “devious policy” of engaging India against China as well as to undermine Russia’s close partnership with India.</p>
