The Editorial Analysis- Security in Friendship

Table of Contents

QUAD Summit -Security in Friendship- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

The recent QUAD summit meeting of the leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, could not have come at a more critical juncture in world politics.
Leaders of India, the United States, Australia and Japan have participated in the QUAD 2022 Summit, held in Tokyo, Japan.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: It has destabilised accepted norms on respecting territorial sovereignty.
- It also has its knock-on effects on commodity and input prices, fuelling inflationary pressures and impacting global supply chains.
- The U.S.A and Japan were blunt in their condemnation of Russia’s belligerence.
- India and Australia avoided any direct reference to Moscow, as indeed did the QUAD summit’s joint statement.
Covid-19 Pandemic: The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that spotlighted deficiencies in public health infrastructure.
China factor: For the quad leaders the obvious, if not always explicitly stated theme linking several global issues is the China factor and the unique strategic challenges that that country poses to the rules-based international order.

The Quad Leaders affirmed the following core messages-

Countering Chinese Aggression: QUAD Members will continue to strongly oppose coercive, provocative, and unilateral actions by Beijing that seek to change the status quo and heighten tensions across the region including through manoeuvres such as-
- The militarisation of disputed territories,
- The dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and
- Clandestine attempts to disrupt other nations’ offshore resource exploitation activities.
Military Cooperation: military coordination between the QUAD Dialogue members will continue to provide strategic depth to the mission, including notably the annual Malabar exercise.
Cooperation in Critical Areas: QUAD Members seeks to leverage Dialogue member resources in various critical areas like-
- Vaccine delivery,
- Climate action,
- Supply chain resilience,
- Disaster response,
- Cyber security infrastructure, and
- Economic cooperation.
Even though Beijing may consider the Quad to be an “Asian NATO”, the Dialogue can be about much more than a strategic pushback on China’s hegemonic intentions.

At a time when the liberal consensus on globalisation has anyway run its course and across the Indo-Pacific, there is, post-pandemic, a strong appetite for deepening regional cooperation for trade and investment.
In this context, the Quad is in pole position to shape economic alliances and regional security architecture towards a new world order based on national interest and realpolitik.