Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Topic: QUAD, China and Bangladesh

Why in News?

• ‹Recently, China has warned Bangladesh against joining the USled Quad alliance, saying that Dhaka's participation in the anti-Beijing "club" would result in "substantial damage" to bilateral relations.

Background

• ‹The unusual warning from China came weeks after visiting Chinese Defence Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe emphasied to Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid that Beijing and Dhaka should make joint efforts against powers from outside the region establishing a "military alliance" in South Asia and practising "hegemonism".

Bangladesh’s Response

• ‹Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said Dhaka maintains a nonaligned and balanced foreign policy and it will decide what to do according to those principles.
• Bangladesh is an independent and sovereign state.
• However, according to the sources, no one from the Quad has approached Bangladesh yet.

About QUAD

• ‹Initiated in 2007, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, Quad for short, is an informal grouping of India, the US, Australia and Japan.
• The four Quad leaders have vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion, sending an clear message to China against its aggressive actions in the region.
• The first summit of the Quad leaders was hosted by US President Joe Biden on March 12.