India, US, Japan and Australia meeting Australia meeting

Tweet

NEW DELHI: A recent meeting of India, Japan, US and Australia appears to have unnerved Beijing which sought to know from New Delhi whether a new bloc was emerging. India allayed the fears that China may have by stating it was just an alliance for cooperation in disaster management and other such issues, sources said. The four countries held an official level meeting in Manila a month back to discuss ways in which they could cooperate in tackling emergencies, including disasters like tsunami of December 2005. New Delhi told Beijing that it already has such multilateral arrangements, involving countries like South Africa, Brazil, Germany and Japan on various issues. The four countries had closely cooperated during the tsunami tragedy and based on that experience, are looking for institutionalising that. Japan has been particularly keen on such an arrangement. Earlier, the US also sought to allay any fears on the four-nation arrangement, saying that the four-nation alliance was not against any country.