Quad woos the Indo-Pacific

Security and stability across the Indo-Pacific was very much in focus as the four members of Quad — India, Australia, Japan, and the US — agreed on a range of measures to bolster their cooperation in areas ranging from infrastructure to health care and maritime security to digital connectivity. Even in non-security domains, much of the collaboration between the four players is aimed at giving nations across the Indo-Pacific region an opportunity to partner.

What the various statements and fact sheets issued after the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington left unsaid was that most of these measures aim to counter China’s aggressive behaviour, be it in the South China Sea or South Asia or the waters off Japan’s territories. If there were any doubts in this regard, they would have been dispelled after US President Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic telling the other leaders that China continues to “behave aggressively, testing us all across the region” and that President Xi Jinping wants to buy diplomatic space to “aggressively pursue China’s interest”.
While Quad leaders have sought to play down the military aspect of their cooperation, the four countries are now part of an annual naval exercise that has grown in complexity. At Saturday’s summit, the leaders unveiled new measures that will enhance interoperability between their coast guard forces, expand the maritime domain awareness partnership to counter dark shipping and illegal maritime activities, lead to shared airlift capacities and leverage collective logistics strengths, and create a diversified and competitive market for semiconductors and boost resilience in supply chains for chips. These steps, coupled with Quad’s work to bolster Open RAN telecommunications and boost the resilience of undersea cables used for digital connectivity, are all aimed at countering China’s efforts to become the pre-eminent player in strategic areas. The new Cancer Moonshot initiative, which will see the rollout of 40 million doses of India-made HPV vaccines, plans for the first meeting of Quad commerce ministers, and future investments by development finance institutions of the four countries are all part of the steps to help nations of the Indo-Pacific.
Quad has benefited from its informal structure and lack of institutional mechanisms, which have allowed it greater flexibility in meeting emerging challenges, with the bulk of the heavy lifting done by the numerous working groups. The grouping will now have to push forward with implementation to match China’s efforts on the ground.