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
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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.



Israel Warns of ‘Prolonged’ War Against Iran

This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Warns of ‘Prolonged’ War Against Iran

This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)

Israel's war against Iran, now in its second week, will be "prolonged", military chief Eyal Zamir said Friday as the arch rivals traded fire and European powers held talks with the country.

"We must be ready for a prolonged campaign," Zamir told Israelis in a video statement, eight days after his country launched a massive wave of strikes it said aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons -- an ambition Tehran has denied.

"We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude," said Zamir.

"The campaign is not over. Although we have made significant achievements, difficult days still lie ahead."

Iran has responded with barrages of missiles and drones, which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.

A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 injured, including one person in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo, which President Isaac Herzog said hit a mosque.

Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people since June 13, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.

As US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering the war between the two foes, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany were meeting with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the Europeans were "putting a diplomatic solution on the table".

On the ground, Israel's military said it struck missile launchers in southwestern Iran after overnight air raids on dozens of targets including what it called a "nuclear weapons project" research and development center.

In Israel, sirens sounded in the afternoon after missiles were launched from Iran for the second time on Friday, with a military official saying that "approximately 20 missiles were launched towards Israel".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air forces bases.

- 'Betrayal' of diplomacy -

Trump has said he will decide "within the next two weeks" whether to involve the United States in the fighting.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said "a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution", while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that "Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon".

Western governments suspect Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that while Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.

"So, saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody... secretly pursuing these activities," the agency's chief Rafael Grossi told CNN.

"We haven't seen that and we have to say it."

France's foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said that "military solutions are not long-term solutions" to ensure Iran respects its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, Araghchi said Israel's attacks were a "betrayal" of diplomatic efforts to reach a nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington.

"We were attacked in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic process," he said.

In an interview with German publication Bild, Israel's top diplomat Gideon Saar said he did not "particularly" believe in diplomacy with Iran.

"All diplomatic efforts so far have failed," said Saar, whose country had supported Trump's 2018 decision to abandon a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.

- 'Madness' -

The UN Security Council convened on Friday for a second session on the conflict, which was requested by Iran with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.

The escalating confrontation is quickly reaching "the point of no return", Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday, saying "this madness must end as soon as possible".

UN chief Antonio Guterres meanwhile pleaded with all sides to "give peace a chance".

Any US involvement in Israel's campaign would be expected to involve the bombing of an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo, using powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses.

In Iran, people fleeing Israel's attacks described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages.

Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities had restricted internet access to avoid "problems" like cyberattacks.

Iranian authorities have arrested a European "who sought to spy on sensitive areas of the country", Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.

Protests were held in Tehran and other cities after Friday prayers, with demonstrators chanting slogans in support of their leaders, state television showed.

"I will sacrifice my life for my leader," read a protester's banner, a reference to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.