Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad is initially composed of four countries: the United States, Australia, India, and Japan. However, a new report noted that India and Japan already left the open strategic dialogue as the two countries now have a good relationship with China.
In a special report by Frank Ching on The Globe and Mail, Quad was believed to be created as the four countries' response to China. The dialogue ended in 2007 when Australia pulled out, but it was revived in 2017 as the Indo-Pacific strategy.
So, the moment it was reintroduced, it was assumed that China might want to put a stop to this movement. In spite of what other people might think, the country did it with diplomacy. In fact, President Xi Jinping had a quiet two-day talk with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April.
The two leaders, reportedly, talked about different issues about trade, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and the border. Although these concerns have yet to be resolved, they both agreed on how they would handle it at the end of their meeting.
Modi even called their conference as a "milestone." It was also noticeable that India remained silent about China after the Prime Minister and President Xi met.
On the other hand, China's Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Japan in the middle of April. It was said to be a rare move for a Chinese diplomat and politician to visit the Land of the Rising Sun, per The Manila Times. Wang even accepted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's offer to have an "exchange of summit visits."
Hence, Premier Li Keqiang visited Japan in May as part of the trilateral summit, which involved China, Japan, and South Korea. Li even stayed in the country after the meeting for his official visit in Abe's state.
From here, the ice was broken. Li invited Abe to visit China while Xi already agreed to come to Japan in 2019. Japan would even join China's Belt and Road Initiative, a Chinese-built infrastructure that would connect Asia, Europe, and Africa.
It has been known that Japan is one of the few countries that is a little hesitant to be a part of the Chinese initiative. It is believed to be one of the reasons behind the two nations' prolonged misunderstanding. Some of the Japanese companies showed their interest to cooperate with China as they are both known to have the experience in infrastructure construction and financing.
It just proved that China's relations with India and Japan have significantly improved. In spite of some issues like the South China Sea and Beijing's construction and militarization in the Spratly Archipelago, among others, the country showed it could cooperate and handle differences.
