New Delhi: With changing global dynamics and China's growing influence in the region, the Indo-Pacific is emerging as the new theatre of geopolitical contestation. And over the years, the Quad has emerged as a major force of good for the Indo-Pacific region. India has become the Indo-Pacific hinge due to its strategic location, economic strength and capacity to become a player in global value and supply chains.
As New Delhi will be hosting the Quad Summit later this year, India with its policy of 'One family, One Future' and strategic autonomy in the global arena, is all ready to play a pivotal role in bridging the gap and mending geopolitical rifts in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, former ambassador to the US Meera Shankar said, “The Quad, with India as an important member, plays a role in ensuring a more sustainable balance in Asia, thereby contributing to peace and prosperity in the region. India had postponed the Quad Summit as the proposed dates did not suit other leaders. The summit was to be rescheduled at a later date. Both India and the US are due to have elections. So that could impact the calendar."
"Quad is not a military grouping, though the Quad countries do have strategic convergence in their support for a free and open Indo-Pacific anchored in international law and a rules-based order. They also work together in several identified areas, including de-risking supply chains, dealing with climate change, global pandemics, maritime domain awareness and disaster relief," Shankar added.
According to sources, the Quad summit is likely to be held sometime in November this year as India will enter into its election cycle by April and the US presidential election is scheduled for November 5. During the summit, the Quad members are planning to focus on key areas such as economic security initiatives, which include critical minerals, resilient supply chains and infrastructure projects.
India was supposed to host the Quad meet in January this year, but was postponed because US Prez Biden was unable to accept India's invitation to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations. Notably, while the Quad members have always focused on an inclusive agenda to foster an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, most of the efforts are made to counter China's belligerence in areas such as security, infrastructure and telecommunications.
In February this year, during the Raisina Quad Think Tank Forum hosted by New Delhi, External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar said that the coming together of India, the US, Australia and Japan as part of the Quad Group serves to illustrate the growth of a multipolar order and advance post-Cold War thinking against spheres of influence.
Highlighting why Quad has grown so rapidly, Jaishankar noted that all four governments have acted differently than how they normally do. Quad is an overhead light, creative, flexible, nimble, responsive and open-minded enterprise, these are not adjectives we normally associate with a bureaucracy”.
He emphasised that the achievements and activities of the Quad naturally focus initially on addressing the region's most pressing needs and challenges such as maritime security, infrastructure, connectivity and HADR, cyber security and counter-terrorism. In 2006, the then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put forward the idea of a Quad.
Furthermore, Professor Harsh Pant, director of studies and head of the Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, said, “India in congruence with its partners in the Quad can certainly emerge as a very credible and strong alternative in the Indo-Pacific to China. The most important issue for several countries in the region in the Indo-Pacific is how to respond to the changing balance of power in the region, growing turbulence in the region and India's role in that sense, becomes very critical because India, which is not an alliance partner of the US, whereas Japan and Australia are, really make the Quad a very innovative, credible approach to regional problems. In that context, for many countries in the region, Quad emerges something more than just an America-led front, wherein India's partnership gives Quad greater credibility, greater momentum, gives the regional states an alternative to China”.
“Quad's role is certainly very critical in a geopolitical order, geoeconomic order that is currently undergoing transition and Quad, therefore, has enormous potential to emerge as the linchpin of an emerging security and geo-economic architecture in the region. Quad, since 2017, has seen an exemplary trajectory”, added Pant.
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