There hasn’t been a leaders’ summit since May 2023. It is being held in New Delhi this time around, although a January conference that was scheduled to take place immediately following the Republic Day parade was cancelled when US President Joe Biden expressed his unwillingness to participate. There is only so much an outgoing US president can bring to the table of the grouping, even though this week’s conference mentioned a leaders’ summit “later this year,” maybe on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in September.
The next US president will soon be deciding the Quad’s course of action and destiny. A proposal first put out by Japan in the early 2000s was given new life by Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump’s trade war with China and his derogatory remarks regarding COVID-19. During the Trump administration, the formalised four-democracies diplomatic grouping’s foreign ministers convened for the first time.
Source: TheFinalAssault
If elected, Trump will be more interested in the Quad than in NATO, but a lot will depend on the other adjustments he makes to Biden’s foreign policy, particularly with regard to Ukraine. There will be greater continuity if Kamala Harris wins. Nevertheless, she might wish to give the organisation her own unique touch if elected. As so, it appeared that the foreign ministers’ conference this year was primarily a holding exercise.
The announcements included two projects that were started at the conference last year: an underwater digital Cable Connectivity and Resilience Center in Australia and a space-based climate warning system in Mauritius. Interestingly, there was no discussion of the Indo-Pacific Economic Partnership, a new US trade initiative introduced by Biden prior to the Hiroshima Quad conference that sparked rumours of a potential ‘Quad Plus’ economic alliance.
Source: Firstpost
Quad rejects labels of a security alliance and has not mentioned China by name in any of its remarks to date. The group’s appeals for “a free and open Indo-Pacific” where “no country dominates and no country is dominated” make clear why they exist in opposition to China’s aggressiveness and desire for dominance. The summit voiced “deepest concern” and urged for “a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in line with international law… including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity,” putting India’s tightrope walk on Russia’s conflict in Ukraine to the test once more.
Nevertheless, if the Biden administration ceased providing funding and weaponry to those two conflicts, the Quad’s concern for Gaza and Ukraine would seem more genuine. This alliance of four democracies, particularly India and Japan, can do more in Myanmar than simply express concern to indicate that they support the people of that nation rather than its military apparatus that seeks to overthrow it.
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