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No free pass for the Quad in Asean
Regional countries are willing to march in step with Quad initiatives only if they benefit them and support their national interests.
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Leaders of the Quad bloc meeting in Tokyo on May 24, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
No one would have assumed that the quiet and unassuming Japanese, polite to a fault, would lead the way in forging Asia's emerging regional order. But looking back over the past 10 years, one can get a pretty good sense of Tokyo's hand in it.
It was Mr Shinzo Abe, as Japan's prime minister, who laid down the ground rules for what is now called the "free and open" Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy being advocated by his country as well as Australia, India and the United States, all four of which are members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).
