BEIJING, 13 March, 2021, (TON): In front of the Quad culmination on Friday, China said trades and participation between nations ought to add to common seeing as opposed to focusing on third party and decline “pursuing exclusive blocs ".

US President Joe Biden, PM Narendra Modi, Australian PM Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga will go to the virtual summit, which is the initial meeting of the top heads of the Quadrilateral partnership, on Friday.

Known as the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue,” representatives for the four-member nations have met periodically since its establishment in 2007.

Asked for China's reaction to the Quad conclave, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that “exchanges and cooperation between nations should contribute to the mutual understanding and trust among nations, rather than targeting a third party or damaging the interest of a third party.”

The meeting to be held virtually is expected to last about 90 minutes, during which all the four leaders would also lay out their vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, amidst China flexing its muscles in the strategically-vital region.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarizing its man-made islands in the past few years.

Beijing claims sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea. Yet, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims. In the East China Sea, China has regional questions with Japan.

The developing circumstance in the Indo-Pacific locale in the wake of China's expanding military muscle-flexing has become a significant argument among driving worldwide forces. The US has been preferring making Quad a security design to check China's developing confidence.