The initiatives unveiled in Delaware underline increasing maritime security cooperation, which could prove to be the most ambitious agenda for Quad in the coming years.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, the 46th President of the united States whose heartiest wish to get re-elected had to be abandoned on account of intense pressure from leading Democratic leaders triggered off by his failing memory, frequent gaffes and disappointing performance in his TV debate with Donald Trump on 27 June, seems to have found peace with himself and signed off the 6th Quad summit of his term in style, with unmistakable warmth. He decided to host the Summit in his hometown Delaware and opened his residence to the three Quad leaders, Narendra Modi from India, Fumio Kishida from Japan and Anthony Albanese from Australia, thus adding a memorable personal touch. Biden succeeded in getting the Wilmington Declaration issued that underlines increasing maritime cooperation under—the first ever Quad at Sea Ship Observer Mission, Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network, Quad Ports of Future partnership and Semiconductor Supply Chain Contingency Network Memorandum of Cooperation. These initiatives unveil a degree of maritime security cooperation which could prove to be the most ambitious agenda for Quad in the coming years. Evidently, he has secured a lasting positive legacy of his one term presidency.
Some critics are terming these Quad initiatives as a de facto security alliance; the Chinese media has already accused the Quad leaders of pursuing a divide and rule strategy and sowing seeds of discord between China and its neighbours.
The Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) was born in 2004 in the aftermath of the devastation caused by a tsunami to the countries of the South East Asian region when the Navies of the US, Japan, India and Australia joined hands to render humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the affected countries. It has come a long way since then. But it remained dormant for more than a decade until it was revived in 2017 with a push from US President Donald Trump who saw it as a means to pushback China’s predatory trade and economic policies and increasing assertiveness and aggressiveness towards her neighbours in Indo-Pacific, especially in South China Sea. In March 2019, the Quad Foreign Ministers met in New York and discussed ways and means of reinvigorating it.
It was left to Joe Biden to raise the level of the Quad meetings to summit level. However, because of Covid-19, the first Quad Summit took place virtually on 12 March 2021. Ever since there have been six Quad Summits (2 virtual and 4 physical) during Biden’s Presidency.
Joe Biden quietly let most of Trump’s tariffs against China continue and hit China hard where it mattered most: denied the export of chips and cutting-edge technologies. While maintaining economic pressure on China (ban on 5G of Huawei and TikTop stayed) Biden was realistic to realise that decoupling from the Chinese economy wasn’t possible. Hence, he opted for derisking and establishing resilient and reliable supply chains which have had, so far, modest success. Though he calls China and Russia strategic rivals of the US, Biden kept channels of communication with China open; he has met the Chinese President Xi Jinping virtually as well as physically and his Secretary of State, Defence Secretary and Treasury Secretary have visited China several times. He stresses that he seeks no confrontation with China but will like to outcompete China. Ironically, his solid support of Ukraine against Russia’s brazen invasion and imposition of severe sanctions on the Russian leaders and companies have pushed Russia closer to China than ever, thus defeating the larger goal of restraining if not containing China. Though in his remarks at the Quad Summit at Delaware PM Modi stressed, “we aren’t against anyone”, China vociferously maintains that Quad is against her and its various initiatives are China centric. Russia concurs with China.
Quad leaders recommitted themselves “to promoting the free, open, rule-based order, rooted in international law undaunted by coercion, to bolster security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.” They reiterated stress on freedom of navigation and overflights and peaceful resolution of disputes. Under Biden, Quad’s agenda has grown exponentially; it looks like the agenda of the UN and the G-20. It supports safe, effective, quality-assured vaccine production and equitable access in close collaboration with multilateral efforts and pledges supply of 4 billion doses of the Covid vaccine. It also promises skill development and cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, climate change, supply chains, green energy, cybercrimes, terrorism, debt relief and above all, Quad Cancer Moonshot to reduce cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific region.
One wonders if Trump might opt out of the Paris Climate Agreement again if re-elected. But in Delaware, under Biden’s gaze, participating leaders promised that they “will work together to keep the Paris-aligned temperature limit within reach and will pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degree centigrade above pre-industrial levels.”
In the domain of critical and emerging technologies, declaration mentions: “we are advancing the deployment of secure, open, and transparent 5G and beyond 5G networks, and working with a range of partners to foster innovation and promote trustworthy vendors and approaches such as Open- Ran.”
With regards to Quad infrastructure partnership, leaders supported G-7 infrastructure efforts and reconfirmed the G-20 quality infrastructure investment principles and pledged to provide high standard infrastructure in Indo-Pacific. While the leaders supported open, fair and transparent lending practices in line with international rules, they pledged to “work together to combat cyber threats, promote resilience, and secure critical infrastructure.”
India has pledged 50 Quad scholarships, valued at US$500,000 to students from the Indo-Pacific region for pursuing a four-year engineering programme at a government-funded technical institute. Biden can take credit for the sterling message of the Delaware Declaration: “We will redouble our efforts to ensure that Quad is a force for regional peace, stability, security, and prosperity. Towards that end, we will continue to champion adherence to international law, particularly as reflected in the US Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLIOS), to meet challenges to maritime rules-based order, including in the East and South China Sea. We affirm our support to small island states, especially those in the Pacific, to enhance their economic and environmental resilience.” Biden was sanguine about Quad’s future: “Our countries are more strategically aligned than ever before…while challenges will come, the world will change, because the Quad is here to stay.”
While the momentum for greater and much more diversified cooperation among the Quad countries for economic wellbeing of the Countries of South East Asia will continue and deeper cooperation for maritime security would expand further in the post Biden era, it’s debatable whether the Quad Summits held in recent years have led to the lowering of China’s assertiveness or aggressiveness and accommodation in her territorial claims against her neighbours. When India assumes Quad Presidency next year, it will have an opportunity to give new direction to Quad as it did to G-20 in 2023.
Surendra Kumar is a former Ambassador of India.