Japan Hosts Quad Summit Seeking Unity on Countering China

The leaders of the United States and Japan, seen here on May 23, 2022, plus Australia and India will meet in Tokyo for the Quad summit SAUL LOEB AFP
The leaders of the United States and Japan, seen here on May 23, 2022, plus Australia and India will meet in Tokyo for the Quad summit SAUL LOEB AFP
TT

Japan Hosts Quad Summit Seeking Unity on Countering China

The leaders of the United States and Japan, seen here on May 23, 2022, plus Australia and India will meet in Tokyo for the Quad summit SAUL LOEB AFP
The leaders of the United States and Japan, seen here on May 23, 2022, plus Australia and India will meet in Tokyo for the Quad summit SAUL LOEB AFP

Leaders of Japan, India, Australia and the United States met in Tokyo on Tuesday, looking to put China on notice as it expands its military and economic influence in the region.

The summit of the grouping known as the Quad comes a day after US President Joe Biden said Washington would be ready to intervene militarily to defend Taiwan, prompting China to accuse him of "playing with fire".

Tuesday's gathering is expected to produce fewer fireworks but still be clearly directed at China, AFP said.

"This is about democracies versus autocracies, and we have to make sure we deliver," Biden said as the Quad summit began.

There is growing regional discomfort with Chinese military activity including sorties, naval exercises and encroachments by fishing vessels that are viewed as probing regional defenses and red lines.

Adding to concerns are China's efforts to build ties with Pacific nations including the Solomon Islands, which sealed a wide-ranging security pact with Beijing last month.

China's foreign minister will visit the Solomon Islands this week, with reports suggesting he could add other countries including Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati.

In a nod to those concerns, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged Quad members to "listen carefully" to regional neighbors, including the Pacific islands, "to help resolve the immediate challenges they face".

"Without walking together with countries in the region, the Quad cannot be successful," he said.

Australia's newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also pledged more support for Pacific nations including aid to deepen "our defense and maritime cooperation".

The Quad nations are expected to agree Tuesday on a deal to monitor regional maritime movement, a White House official said.

The "major initiative" will track "what is happening in countries' territorial waters and exclusive economic zones", the official told reporters.

Collected data will be unclassified and shared with "a wide range of partners" to help monitor activities like illegal fishing.

- 'Candid, direct conversations' -
Biden, Kishida, Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be looking to present a united front, but there are divisions behind the scenes.

India is the only Quad member that has not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Biden has repeatedly described a strong response to Moscow as a deterrent to other nations considering unilateral military action -- like China.

US strategy is for a "free, open, connected, secure and resilient Indo-Pacific. Russia's assault on Ukraine only heightens the importance of those goals -- the fundamental principles of the international order," he said.

Biden will meet Modi and Albanese one-on-one later Tuesday and "is very aware that India has its own history, its own views", the White House official said.

"The question is how they're addressed and how they're managed. And I think the president is very much of the view that the way to do this is to have candid, direct conversations," the official added.

India is expected to seek a softer overall tone to any joint Quad statement, shying away from the more muscular language employed by Washington, Canberra and Tokyo in recent months.

But Biden said the grouping was of growing importance, calling it a "central" partnership.

"In a short time, we've shown the Quad isn't just a passing fad. We mean business," he said.

Biden arrived in Japan on Sunday after a stop in Seoul as he tries to reassure Asian allies his administration has not been distracted by the war in Ukraine.

Hanging over the regional tour has been the threat that North Korea could be planning fresh missile launches or even a nuclear test.

Speculation that a launch could happen when Biden was in Seoul did not materialize, but Washington has said it remains "prepared", and Pyongyang's missile program is also likely to be on the Quad agenda.



Pope Urges ‘All People of All Nations’ to Silence Arms and Overcome Divisions in Christmas Address

Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
TT

Pope Urges ‘All People of All Nations’ to Silence Arms and Overcome Divisions in Christmas Address

Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged "all people of all nations" to find courage during this Holy Year "to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions" plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff's "Urbi et Orbi" — "To the City and the World" — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, "even (with) our enemies."

"I invite every individual, and all people of all nations ... to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions," the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to throngs of people below.

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, "particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave," as well as Lebanon and Syria "at this most delicate time."

Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by "the ongoing clash of arms." The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.

Iraqi Christians persist in their faith

Christians in Nineveh Plains attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday at the Mar Georgis church in the center of Telaskaf, Iraq, with security concerns about the future. "We feel that they will pull the rug out from under our feet at any time. Our fate is unknown here," said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.

Iraq’s Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million.

But the community has steadily dwindled since the 2003 US-led invasion and further in 2014 when the ISIS extremist group swept through the area. The exact number of Christians left in Iraq is unclear, but they are thought to number several hundred thousand.

German celebrations muted by market attack

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that "there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg."

He urged Germans to "stand together" and that "hate and violence must not have the last word."

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and criticized authorities for failing to combat "the Islamification of Germany" and voiced support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.