Quad countries make thinly veiled swipe at Beijing; peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain is a must

From left: US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a Quad Leaders' meeting, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, western Japan, Saturday, May 20, 2023.- AP

Hiroshima, Japan, May 21, 2023 (AFP): The leaders of the Quad group -- Australia, India, Japan and the United States -- delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing's behaviour Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima.

US President Joe Biden and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for "peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain".