What is Quad Alliance: Formation, Purpose and its Future
What is Quad Alliance?
The Quad Alliance, also known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India that is maintained by semi-regular summits, information exchanges, military drills, and other meetings.
Quad alliance is the most historical and important event in the world because it has all powerful countries. The group is called QUAD because its initial aim was to promote security and stability in the quadrilateral region of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Quad is an informal strategic alliance between four nations: Japan, Australia, India and the United States.
It is really a very powerful alliance because all these four countries have nuclear weapons. All these four nations have fought against terrorism earlier. It’s also great news for us that all these four nations are democratic countries and they don’t want any dictatorship in this world, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.
It remains an informal grouping without any institutional structure or legal status. However, it could evolve into a formal structure if all members agree to it.
Purpose of Quad
The main purpose of Quad was to maintain a free and resilient Indo-Pacific region. In 2008, the navies of these four countries conducted their first-ever joint exercise in the Bay of Bengal.
However, shortly after this, China expressed its opposition to such a grouping seeing it as an attempt to contain it. By 2009, Japan withdrew from this group due to its growing economic ties with China. India was also cautious about antagonizing China over this issue which has been reflected in various statements issued by Indian officials over the years.
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However, in 2017, due to a number of reasons including China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea and other issues such as trade and protectionism, there has been a renewed interest among these countries to take action. The recent naval exercises were also seen as a signal to China. Now we need to fight with China which always tries to expand its territory. So the Quad alliance was formed to counter China’s expansionism.
All the member countries of the Quad alliance want peace but if war becomes inevitable then the members will fight with China together. It’s very clear that China can’t win against 4 powerful countries at a time.
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Formation of Quad
The Quad alliance was formed in 2007 to ensure security in the Indo-Pacific region. The alliance was made up of four powerful countries which are America, Japan, Australia and India. The group first came together in 2007, when Japan hosted Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then-U.S. President George W. Bush for a trilateral dialogue on maritime security issues.
The first meeting of the Quad occurred in 2007 where officials from the United States, Japan, Australia and India met on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manila. However, after several meetings and discussions, including at the 2008 G20 summit in Japan and a trilateral meeting between India, Japan and Australia in 2008, the initiative fizzled out after Chinese objections.
In 2017, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested a revival of the quadrilateral alliance during his visit to India. This time around, Chinese objections have not stopped the Quad from holding regular ministerial-level meetings since November 2017.
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Future of quad
There is a lot to watch out for in the days to come. Here are a few things I will be keeping an eye on:
In March 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They discuss regional security issues at an informal summit at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. After the meeting, Washington and New Delhi approved a joint statement that emphasized close cooperation between the two countries on maritime security issues in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Although this statement did not mention China by name, it referenced the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation through critical sea lanes in IOR – notably, the Malacca Strait – as well as in the South China Sea. The Trump administration has also pursued a more muscular approach than its predecessors towards China in order to check Beijing’s increasing influence in the region, including by sanctioning the Chinese military for challenging American interests.
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The US and India adopted a maritime security partnership that set out joint efforts to protect international shipping in IOR. Elsewhere from terrorism, piracy and other threats. As a result, US warships have increased patrolling in the IOR. China has also developed the Third Maritime Silk Road infrastructure to further extend its influence in the region. The Militarization of South China Sea.
There is a chance in future that the Quad remains focused on China and does not develop into anything larger.
Conclusion:
We should always be aware of the China question. But there’s no reason why India, Japan and Australia can’t work together on other issues as well. The Quad is to be a new way for these four key Indo-Pacific nations to combine forces for strategic purposes. It’s about partnerships, not alliances.
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