Won't be popular,has"no future",China on Quad

China on Tuesday hit out at the upcoming first-ever in-person Quad summit to be hosted by US President Joe Biden, saying the formation of "cliques" targeting other countries "won't be popular" and has "no future". US President Biden would host the Quad Summit on September 24 in Washington which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that cooperation between the countries should not target third parties. "China believes that any regional cooperation framework should go with the trend of the times and be conducive to mutual trust and cooperation between the regional countries. It should not target any third party or harm their interests," he said. "I want to stress that China is not only an engine for economic growth in Asia Pacific, it is also the main force safeguarding peace," he said, adding that China's growth is an increase in "forces for peace" in the world and "good news" for the region.

In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.In March, US President Biden hosted the first-ever summit of the Quad leaders in the virtual format that vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion, sending a subtle message to China. The Quad summit will take place amid China's aggressive behaviour in the resource-rich South China Sea.