Malaysia's former PM warns Quad countries not to provoke China

BEIJING - Members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue should not provoke China lest they trigger a heavy global economic backlash, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told Nikkei in a recent interview.

The Quad, an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India, is "an old strategy of encirclement" and its members "would be better off engaging with Beijing individually rather than joining hands to attempt to control China's rising influence..." he said.

The former leader also stressed that Quad members should hold peaceful negotiations with China to enhance stability and mutual economic benefits, and called on US President Joe Biden to ease relations with China.

"I think over time Biden might be able to reduce the tension and have a dialogue with China," he said. "It cannot become worse than (former US President) Trump because Biden has more experience in international affairs than Trump as he served as vice president with (Barack) Obama."