Before invading Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin repeatedly called for NATO to be scaled back in Europe, warning that it threatened Russian security. Now, Beijing is warning the United States and its allies against creating a version of NATO in the Indo-Pacific.

According to Bloomberg, China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, claimed that the United States is attempting to create an anti-Chinese alliance.

"The perverse actions run counter to the common aspiration of the region for peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes," Wang said. "They are doomed to fail."

Wang also suggested that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, colloquially known as the "Quad," was similar to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance and the AUKUS defense pact between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

"The U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy is becoming a byword for bloc politics," Wang claimed. "It professes a desire for international cooperation, but in reality, it is stoking regional rivalry. It talks about multilateralism, but in reality, it is forming exclusive clubs. It claims international rules, but in reality, it is setting and imposing rules suiting itself and its acolytes."

It is true that the Quad, as a diplomatic and military arrangement, came about as a response to increased Chinese economic and military power. In the past, Beijing has referred to it as an "Asian NATO."

The dialogue was initiated in 2007 by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe with the goal of maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. The original Quad ended following the withdrawal of Australia during Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's tenure, but it was essentially revived to counter China militarily and diplomatically in 2017.

China to Blame

It is also true that several Asian nations—like European states on Russia's borders—have sought to build closer ties with the United States as China has been expanding its presence. Beijing now has active border disputes with several of its neighbors, including Japan, the Philippines, India, and Vietnam. In addition, China continues to maintain that Taiwan is a breakaway province that will be returned to mainland rule.

China has increased its military capabilities and expanded its presence in the South China Sea, which Beijing views as its sovereign waters.

The member nations of the Quad have also rejected any notion that it is an Asian NATO or a military alliance, instead pointing to its broad-based cooperation, including on vaccines and technology.

"I would urge you not to slip into that lazy analogy of an Asian-NATO," said Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, who added that India was not a treaty ally of the United States. "We are not a treaty ally. It doesn't have a treaty, a structure, a secretariat, it's a kind of twenty-first century way of responding to a more diversified, dispersed world."

Still, for Beijing, any sign of a coalition is close enough to an alliance.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military small arms, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters