Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. At one time, it seemed as if the Quad grouping of India, Japan, Australia and the US, while focused on the cause of a free and open Indo-Pacific, was chiefly about containing China militarily, given Beijing’s thinly veiled ambition of establishing its influence over the region and possibly unsettling the US-led world order.
Declarations from the Quad’s latest meeting, hosted by the US, though, may suggest an increasingly civilian orientation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly gave the Quad this nickname: “Quick Unified Assured Delivery." India unveiled a few welfare initiatives for the region, including a vaccine programme against cervical cancer.
The four Quad members pledged to help one another keep their ports resilient in the face of disruption risks. A logistics pact aimed at shared airlift capacity has been billed as a launch pad for a civilian response to natural disasters.
Cooperation on semiconductor supply security is about securing a functional market, though it seems haunted by Chinese designs on Taiwan. Geo-strategic motives are visible in the Quad’s agenda, but New Delhi has kept its options open.
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