Left leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan have announced they will organise “jathas” along the east coast to protest against the multi-nation exercise in the Bay of Bengal. Their protests will find a friendly echo — in Beijing.

For, unsettled by prospects of a “quadrilateral initiative” involving India, US, Japan and Australia, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has conveyed Beijing’s serious concerns to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee over China not being consulted in a forum that will address issues relating to East Asia.

The Chinese objection came when the two leaders met on the margins of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) last week in Manila. With India preparing to host its biggest multilateral exercise with Navies of the four countries as well as Singapore in the Bay of Bengal next month, sources said, China is worried over this dialogue enlarging into a meaningful cooperation among four “democracies” in defence and security matters.

For the record, the four countries felt there were prospects of greater cooperation when they combined well to deal with the aftermath of the tsunami. But China feels there is more than just disaster management in this informal quadrangular exchange.

Yang’s conversation with Mukherjee follows up on the demarche China sent to all four countries after their officials held informal talks in May in Manila on the sidelines of an ARF preparatory meeting. China sought to know the objective of these consultations.

India, just like the other three countries, has maintained that this effort is not directed against China. Mukherjee, sources said, assured Yang that India is not part of any design to contain China and that New Delhi valued its strong bilateral relationship with Beijing.

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