Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated in the third in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, Japan on 20 May 2023, along with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Joseph Biden of the United States of America(USA).

Guided by their vision for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, they reiterated the importance of upholding the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and peaceful resolution of disputes.  

To strengthen the resilience and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific the Leaders announced following initiatives which would complement the development priorities of the region:

A. Clean Energy Supply Chains Initiative which would facilitate research and development and support the Indo-Pacific’s energy transition. In addition, the Quad Principles of Clean Energy Supply Chains were approved to guide engagement with the region on clean energy supply chain development.

B. ‘Quad Infrastructure Fellowships Programme’ to support policy makers and practitioners in the region to design, build and manage sustainable and viable infrastructure in their countries.

C. ‘Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience’ to leverage Quad’s collective expertise in design, manufacturing, laying and maintenance of undersea cables to secure and diversify these critical networks.

D. Quad support for a small-scale ORAN deployment in Palau, the first in the Pacific region. They also released the ORAN Security Report to support industry investment in open, interoperable and secure telecom platforms.

E. Quad Investors’ Network has been launched as a private sector led platform to facilitate investments in strategic technologies.

F. The Leaders welcomed progress of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, announced at their Summit last year in Tokyo. They noted that data sharing with partners in South East and the Pacific under this programme is underway and would soon include partners in the Indian Ocean Region.

The Leaders agreed on the need to preserve the integrity of the UN, its Charter and its agencies. They agreed on continuing their efforts to strengthen and reform the multilateral system, including through an expansion of the UNSC membership in both permanent and non-permanent categories.

India will host our next in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit in 2024.

LEARNING FROM HOME/WITHOUT CLASSES/BASICS

The quadrilateral security dialogue includes Japan, India, United States and Australia.

All four nations find a common ground, share a vision of an open and free Indo-Pacific, of being the democratic nations and common interests of unhindered maritime trade and security.

Free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region serves the long-term interests of all countries in the region and of the world at large; Tackle common challenges of terrorism and proliferation; Upholding the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific and respect for international law, freedom of navigation and overflight.

INDIA AND QUAD

India’s approach to the Quadrilateral consultative forum, which comprises Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, reflects New Delhi’s plural foreign policy arch in an evolving Indo-Pacific construct.

Balancing China’s growing outreach with the Indo-Pacific region while concurrently affirming bilateralism with Beijing explains India’s strategic autonomy and pluralism in its foreign policy

To protect its own maritime interests which are being threatened by the rising Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). 

  It will serve two geostrategic goals of India viz. countering China’s aggressive on border with India’s assertive in the maritime domain and emerge as a net security provider in the region.

The maritime sphere is wide open to India to undertake coalition building, rule setting, and other forms of strategic exploration as right now Quad is more about cooperation in maritime security and climate change and not so much into territorial talks.

It gives New Delhi a powerful platform to advance its interests in East Asia, coordinate strategies with powerful friends, and add more strength to its Act East initiative.

The geostrategic term “Indo-Pacific” as opposed to “Asia-Pacific” has been gaining currency. Such an alliance would be a useful counter to China’s string of pearls and its all-weather friendship with Pakistan.