Quad should emerge as a strong regional player & also look beyond

From the editor’s desk

Come May 24, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will host the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of Japan, Kishida Fumio, and the President of the United States, Joseph R Biden, in Sydney for the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit. But as the leaders of the four important countries meet, there will always be the recurrent question of whether Quad, as it stands today, is relevant, and whether it can deliver on its promises.

One of the chief areas the Quad members understand about is that they have to cooperate and combine to thwart China’s maritime ambitions. China is pursuing its goal of becoming a dominant world power, elevating itself to the position of a superpower, and even try to stay ahead of the US- the only superpower left after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990’s. In its bid to dominate the world, China knows full well the importance of the maritime space, which is more important to China than making opportunistic attempts to grab land in the Himalayas.

This is not to say China does not indulge in land-grabbing attempts in the Himalayas any more. It still does it, and India knows more about it than perhaps any other country, being its neighbour. But maritime space is more significant given the fact that a huge proportion of China’s trade happens via the Indian oceanic routes. It is here that the importance of Quad becomes vital. From India’s perspective, if China resorts to aggression on India’s borders, India with the cooperation of other Quad members can potentially disrupt China’s trade. Unlike the continental sphere over land, where India seems to face challenges due to ChinaPakistan collusion, the maritime sphere is wide open to India, which can build coalition with other member countries of the Quad, giving India the strategic advantage, thereby forcing China to shelve at least some of its dominant policies in this sphere. India being located at the centre of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical equation, therefore, with the cooperation of Quad countries, it can bring to fruition its vision of extending its influence far beyond its geographical boundaries.

Moreover, India has always entered into alliances like the Quad with the aim of mobilizing collective action with other countries in a bid to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to needy countries; engage in monitoring shipping for search and rescue or anti-piracy operations; providing infrastructure assistance to climatically vulnerable states, and indulge in connectivity initiatives and similar activities. These goals are also that of other Quad members; therefore Quad must work cohesively towards the attainment of these goals.

Quad countries can come together to check colonial policies of China in the Indian Ocean region, ensuring security and growth for all countries in the region. What is significant is that all Quad member countries are strong democracies, which understand and value the importance of democratic values. This requires that Quad should stand as a cohesive unit in the Indian Ocean region, which has become vulnerable ever since China began pursuing its colonial policies in the region.

However, with changing times, the Quad must evolve and should not confine itself to the Indo-Pacific objectives alone, as this will make it a maritime grouping, rather than an allencompassing one. This may raise questions whether the cooperation extends to the AsiaPacific and Eurasian regions as well. And in the wake of the United Nations not having the teeth to tackle international crises effectively, regional groupings like the Quad assume more significance.

But the Quad itself must emerge as a strong unit in the Indo-Pacific by envisioning its objectives in the Indo-Pacific to begin with, especially in matters of ensuring that every country in the region gets its economic and security interests fulfilled.

Besides, Quad can consider including other Indo-Pacific countries into its fold such as Indonesia, and Singapore, thereby making Quad a truly representative body in the region. This will pave the way for building a comprehensive vision on the Indo-Pacific taking into account the maritime challenges, present and future, with a viewing to solidifying strategies, both military and non-military, to ensure the Indo-Pacific region remains safe and strife-free, encouraging fulfillment of trade and other interests of the countries in the region, and of those countries beyond the region that want to engage with these countries.