Opinion | Quad Has A Substantial Agenda For The Future

The Quad summit on September 21 in Delaware, which was the sixth one under US President Joe Biden's presidency, affirms that the forum is "here to stay".

Each country sees its interests being served in various areas by its membership of the Quad. For India, the grouping provides an additional forum to strengthen relations with countries with which ties had begun to grow much before the emergence of Quad in its present profile.

India emphasises the broader purpose of Quad beyond the China threat. That threat is certainly a binding factor within the group, even if the rhetoric is that the Quad is not directed at any country. This discourse is diplomatically necessary so as not to limit the scope and purpose of the Quad and avoid arousing greater hostility from China, with which each Quad member has flourishing economic ties. 

A Broader Definition

India prefers a broader Quad foundation with multiple objectives that would bind the members more durably. It de-emphasises Quad as a security forum, well aware that the goal of the increasingly complex Malabar exercises is maritime security, given China's increasing maritime threat in view, with Japan first and Australia later becoming permanent members of these exercises.

That the Quad is not a security pact is a position that the other partners of India accept. In taking this position, the Quad also has taken into consideration ASEAN sensitivities about its central role in promoting a regional security architecture in Asia.

A broader Quad agenda meets India's longer-term needs by way of closer cooperation in diverse areas such as critical technologies, climate change, cybersecurity, capacity building, health, education, terrorism, and in maritime domain issues like disaster relief, illegal fishing, human trafficking, etc.

In his opening statement at the Quad summit in Wilmington, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the democratic values that unite the members, their joint support for a rules-based international order, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the peaceful resolution of all issues. A free, open, inclusive, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, he added, was Quad's shared priority and commitment. But then, the need to affirm all this arises because of Chinese policies in the Indo-Pacific region, even though he also stated for the record that the Quad is not against anyone.

"Here To Stay, To Assist"

Modi noted that the Quad had collaboratively undertaken numerous positive and inclusive initiatives in areas such as health, security, critical and emerging technologies, climate change, and capacity building. Expressing India's firm commitment to the Quad, he affirmed that it was here to stay, to assist, to partner, and to complement. The Quad statement on digital infrastructure reflects India's views and priorities: the role of digital technologies and systems in profoundly transforming societies and accelerating the realisation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; Digital public infrastructure (DPI) built and leveraged by the public and private sector to provide equitable access and improve public service delivery at scale with inclusivity, interoperability, modularity, scalability, security and privacy, and human rights as guiding principles.

At the Quad Leaders' Cancer Moonshot event, Modi recalled that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the 'QUAD Vaccine Initiative' for the Indo-Pacific had been launched. The group has now decided to tackle a challenge like cervical cancer. India, he said, had also developed its own vaccine for cervical cancer, and new treatment protocols are being launched with the assistance of AI. India, he added, is ready to share its experience and expertise. He announced India's contribution of $7.5 million for sampling kits, detection kits, and vaccines under the Quad Moonshot Initiative. Through the initiatives of GAVI and the QUAD, India will contribute 40 million vaccine doses for Indo-Pacific countries. All this is reflected in the Quad joint statement.

The Quad Joint Statement and the fact sheet issued separately have overlapping content. The Joint statement notes that four years after elevating the Quad to a leader-level format, the grouping is more strategically aligned than ever before and is a force for good that delivers real, positive, and enduring impact for the Indo-Pacific.

No Unilateral Actions

Without naming China, the joint statement opposes any destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion, mentions recent dangerous and aggressive actions in the maritime domain, and affirms that the Quad seeks a region where no country dominates and no country is dominated.

The statement emphasises the importance of adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including with respect to maritime claims, and calls the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea a significant milestone. It expresses serious concern about the situation in the East and South China Seas, the militarisation of disputed features, coercive and intimidating manoeuvres in the South China Sea, the dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels, and the efforts to disrupt other countries' offshore resource exploitation activities. UNCLOS is strongly supported, but the irony is that the US is not a signatory to this Convention.

To allay ASEAN concerns about not getting caught in the US-China rivalry in the Indo-Pacific, the joint statement reaffirms consistent and unwavering support for ASEAN centrality and unity and the implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). It states that the Quad will ensure that its work is aligned with ASEAN's principles and priorities, even though it is clear that ASEAN is divided and has not been able to handle the security challenge from China. Nevertheless, it is necessary to ensure that ASEAN, which bridges the Indian and Pacific oceans, does not see the Quad as undermining its regional leadership role in establishing a regional security architecture in Asia.

Respect For ASEAN

To mitigate suspicions about Quad adding to the tensions in the region, the statement says that respect for the leadership of regional institutions, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), is and will remain at the centre of the Quad's efforts.

The Quad has recognised India's leadership in finalising the IORA Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (IOIP) and expressed its support for its implementation.

As part of HADR, the Quad partners are working together to provide over $4 million in humanitarian assistance to support the people of Vietnam in light of the devastating consequences of Typhoon Yagi.
The launch of a Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project was announced to leverage the collective logistics strengths of Quad countries in order to support civilian response to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific region.

The Quad intends to continue delivering Earth Observation data and other space-related applications to assist nations across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen climate early warning systems and better manage the impacts of extreme weather events. In this context, it has welcomed India's establishment of a space-based web portal for Mauritius, to support the concept of open science for space-based monitoring of extreme weather events and climate impact.

A Slew Of Initiatives

The statement notes the progress made in scaling up the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), which includes the Information Fusion Center-Indian Ocean Region, Gurugram. The Quad now intends to layer new technology and data into IPMDA over the coming year to sharpen the maritime domain awareness picture for partners. A new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI) was announced, with India hosting the inaugural MAITRI workshop in 2025.

Other initiatives were announced by the Quad summit. The US Coast Guard, the Japan Coast Guard, the Australian Border Force, and the Indian Coast Guard will launch a first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission in 2025 to improve interoperability and advance maritime safety. This should be seen in the context of China using its coast guard fleet to aggressively assert its maritime claims.

In the context of the Quad's agenda to improve the region's connectivity through the development of quality, resilient infrastructure, the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership project was announced. In 2025, a Quad Regional Ports and Transportation Conference will be hosted by India in Mumbai.

Through the Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience, the four countries continue to support and strengthen quality undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific. The joint statement notes that India has commissioned a feasibility study to examine the expansion of undersea cable maintenance and repair capabilities in the Indo-Pacific.

Technological Strides

The Quad Principles for Development and Deployment of Digital Public Infrastructure have been welcomed in the joint statement. This is an area of priority interest for India.

In the area of semiconductors, cooperation will be promoted to enhance the resilience of Quad's semiconductor supply chains. The Memorandum of Cooperation between Quad countries for the Semiconductor Supply Chains Contingency Network has been welcomed.

Through the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AI-ENGAGE) initiative announced at last year's Summit, the Quad will deepen leading-edge collaborative research to harness artificial intelligence, robotics, and sensing to transform agricultural approaches and empower farmers across the Indo-Pacific. An inaugural $7.5+ million in funding opportunities for joint research has been announced.

The Quad will launch the Quad BioExplore Initiative, a funded mechanism that will support joint AI-driven exploration of diverse non-human biological data across all four countries.

The Quad intends to align policies, incentives, standards, and investments around creating high-quality, diversified clean energy supply chains that will enhance collective energy security. This will include high-standard private sector investment.

Cybersecurity partnership will be strengthened to address common threats. Inter-parliamentary exchanges will be deepened. The US has announced the creation of a bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Quad Caucus.

Other Key Points In The Statement

Through the Quad Fellowship, the four countries are building a network of the next generation of science, technology, and policy leaders. This will include students from ASEAN countries for the first time. India has announced a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships worth $500,000 to students from the Indo-Pacific to pursue a four-year undergraduate engineering program at a Government of India-funded technical institution.

The joint statement recognises the urgent need to reform the UN Security Council to make it more representative, inclusive, transparent, efficient, effective, democratic and accountable through expansion in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership of the UN Security Council. This expansion of permanent seats should, it says, include representation for Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in a reformed Security Council. The inclusion of the Caribbean in this list is surprising and will complicate the issue.

On the conflict in Ukraine, the language is strong though Russia is not named, no doubt following the precedent established in the G20 declaration under India's presidency. Other than the usual references to respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Quad leaders shared the view that the use, or threat of use, of nuclear weapons was unacceptable. This has additional relevance in the context of Russia's revision of its nuclear doctrine. India could have included our position that today is not an era of war, that solutions cannot be found on the battlefield, and that dialogue and diplomacy are the only path to peace, to have a more balanced text. But presumably, this would not have been acceptable to the other partners.

On Terrorism, Media

The Quad has reaffirmed its commitment to fostering a resilient information environment, including through its Countering Disinformation Working Group by supporting media freedom and addressing foreign information manipulation and interference, including disinformation, which undermines trust and sows discord in the international community. India has gone along with this text even though the US, and to a lesser extent Australia, are the principal sources of disinformation about India. As for media freedom, the blanket ban on Russian media violates that principle.

On terrorism, the Quad text reflects India's concerns, including cross-border terrorism. The condemnation of terrorist attacks including the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and in Pathankot is reiterated. India's long-standing proposal for a UN Convention on International Terrorism does not figure in the joint statement.

The joint statement notes that over the past four years, Quad Leaders have met six times, including twice virtually, and Quad Foreign Ministers have met eight times in the last five years. It notes that the Quad Commerce and Industry ministers are preparing to meet for the first time in the coming months. The leaders of Development Finance Institutions and Agencies will meet to explore future investments by the four countries in the Indo-Pacific.

The next Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting will be hosted by the US in 2025, and the next Quad Leaders' Summit by India in the same year.

All in all, the Quad summit has announced a substantial agenda for the future.

(Kanwal Sibal was Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Turkey, Egypt, France and Russia, and Deputy Chief Of Mission in Washington.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author