Australia: Quad has evolved swiftly to meet challenges, including of disinformation

New Delhi, Sep 9 (UNI) Amid Canberra’s heightening tensions with Beijing, the Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne on Friday said the Quad has evolved “swiftly and very effectively” with a clear purpose of quickly meeting challenges, including “disinformation of strategic advantage during Covid-19” – in an oblique reference to her past criticism of China for “creating disinformation during the pandemic”.
Addressing the Third Indo-Pacific Oration at the Observer Research Foundation here, the Australian Minister said the pandemic, while it has had a significant impact on the health and development of nations, it has also deepened the risks of protectionism and recession and “exacerbated pressure on rules, norms and institutions and it has fuelled dangerous disinformation”.
Payne said the “Quad has evolved very swiftly and very effectively over the past two years, it is a thoroughly contemporary grouping, a diplomatic network of countries that engages flexibly and practically with a clear purpose of enhancing stability by meeting challenges quickly and nimbly, whether it be cooperation in supply chains for Covid-19 vaccines or combating disinformation for strategic advantage during Covid-19.”
Earlier this year, the Australian government announced plans to set up the country’s first task force devoted to fighting disinformation campaigns, under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
In June, Payne criticized China for creating “disinformation” during the coronavirus pandemic, saying it “will cost lives.”
“It is troubling that some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models,” Payne had said in a speech in Canberra.
In her address at the ORF, Payne said the “strategic” competition arising amidst this disruption compels countries like India and Australia to value freedom and openness and sovereignty.
“We all have a role to play in the region in which the multi polarity that Dr Jaishanakr has espoused finds a peaceful and prosperous balance because we respect each other’s sovereignty.”
“Australia is confident about our role in the region, and it is obvious that India is a natural leader within the rules based system,” she said.