The leaders of the Quad – the grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the United States – have often described the grouping as a force for good with a constructive agenda that focuses on key challenges of the Indo-Pacific region such as health security, climate change, clean energy transition, infrastructure and connectivity, and critical and emerging technologies. Yet, quietly, the grouping has also found a solid footing in the realm of security and defence through cooperation and joint initiatives between its members. The original name for the grouping, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – a formulation that is rarely used nowadays in official documents – laid out the importance of the security element in the coming together of these four key powers. Equally unstated is the manner in which the Quad’s initiatives were consistently aimed at countering challenges emanating from China, whether it is ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight, maintaining the rules-based order, or setting standards for critical technologies.
This is why a meeting of senior military commanders from Quad member countries, including India’s chief of defence staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, in Sunnylands in California for a high-profile meeting on Indo-Pacific security this week is significant. It is the clearest indicator yet that the grouping is seeking to take security cooperation to the next level before the Quad Summit later this month. The security aspect of the formation was already strengthened by Australia’s inclusion in the Malabar naval exercise, an advanced drill involving the navies of India, Japan and the US that is conducted every year. The California event, therefore, is likely to serve as a forum for increasing interoperability between the armed forces of the four countries and consolidating cooperation in a range of areas, from joint training and exercises to ways to counter challenges in the Indo-Pacific.
In a way, focus on the security element in Quad was inevitable, given the serious challenges in the Indo-Pacific arising from China’s increasingly aggressive and assertive behaviour. Two members of the Quad – India and Japan – are grappling with serious territorial disputes with China, while Australia and the US have strained relations with China because of sharp differences in areas such as trade and maintaining the rules-based order. It is no surprise, hence, that Quad members are looking to deepen engagement with regional partners, including information-sharing and technical assistance, strengthen maritime security, uphold the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and ensure the security of sea lines of communication. For New Delhi, the meeting may also signal a potential shift in strategy at a time when Beijing is looking to exert pressure in the Indian Ocean region, and show once again that for India, the long-term strategic adversary continues to be China.
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