Change-proofing the Quad’s global public goods mission in the Indo-Pacific

Global Public Goods (GPGs) enable the Quad to don the mantle of strategic ambiguity and as a non-threatening, benign, beneficial and stabilizing force in the turbulent waters of the Indo-Pacific.

The context in which the Quad got upgraded to the Summit level during the first Presidency of Donald Trump and expanded in scope during the Biden Presidency primarily put a spotlight on the strategic security significance of the US, Australia, India and Japan coming together as part of the “US-led security latticework” in the redefined and rechristened Indo-Pacific Region. It marked India’s geopolitical and geo-economic footprint in what used to be the out of bounds Asia Pacific. While Japan and Australia were already a part of this security formation as allies, India’s joining it as a strategic partner was the novelty and additional merit. It was a far cry from the days in the 1990s when I was in Ministry of External Affairs and India sought to be associated with APEC, we were told we are not in the geographical footprint of the Asia-Pacific.

The Quad was meant to implicitly balance and contain China in its maritime behaviour. It sought to deter China from coercively, arbitrarily and unilaterally setting the terms of engagement and pose challenges to peace, security, stability and prosperity in the region.
An equally important part of its original raison d’être (Tsunami of 2004) and mandate that has grown organically over the last few years is one that would position the Quad on another strategic fitness front. As a contrast to the rather transactional BRI, debt diplomacy and trade deficit propagating “cooperation” policies of China, the effort of Quad leaders has been to position itself as the Leaders’ Joint Statement in May 2024 said, to “work together to be a global force for good.”

Global Public Goods (GPGs) enable the Quad to don the mantle of strategic ambiguity and as a non-threatening, benign, beneficial and stabilizing force in the turbulent waters of the Indo-Pacific. It equilibrates strength perception with cooperation, sheds a provocation stance while deterring coercion and presents soft power to complement hard power.
The Quad has in a short time become a convenor, formulator of policies, executor of collaborative programs and deliverer of some key GPGs that the region needs. These are aligned to the UN promoted GPGs—principally the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, climate action, humanitarian response, technological empowerment, connectivity and resilience benefitting all in the region and the world.

That it is a grouping of four great democracies who have kept faith with it and are lighthouses for spreading those values burnishes its standing and aids in virtue signalling vis-à-vis authoritarian systems in the region. PM Modi emphasized in the 2024 Quad Leaders› Summit the importance of the Quad uniting around shared democratic values for the greater good of humanity amid global tensions for a rules-based international order, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, and peaceful conflict resolution, stressing that the alliance is not directed against any nation.

The GPG agenda of Quad has helped provide the soft security, sustainability, moral argument and stature to what has been solely viewed as a competitive military-security formation. It assuages the concerns of established regional groupings like ASEAN that this will not detract from their centrality but will reinforce their own sub-regional and regional objectives and help them reinforce their bargaining power vis-à-vis China.
In the last few years these GPGs have been prioritized, conceptualised, regionally tailored and actioned on an unprecedented scale and scope in key areas. The thematic choices of the GPGs are based on the felt needs of the region, especially after the Covid shock, perceived gaps and chinks in existing systems, and driven by shared strategic vision. These are areas where the four countries of Quad are capable of contributing—each according to their comparative advantage and strengths operating in a variable geometry of 1, 2, 3 or all 4 countries leading and participating in the selected initiatives.

INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES
Significant infrastructure initiatives that have flourished include the incorporation of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in Quad activities, Joint Principles for DPI, Ports of the Future Partnership, Infrastructure Fellowship, 1,300 already, connectivity and resilience project with USD 140 million investment in undersea cables, Australia’s Cable Connectivity and Resilience Center and Japanese and USA training programs. All these are meant to enhance the capacity, durability, and reliability linked to security and prosperity in the region.

HEALTH SECURITY
The Quad Health Security Partnership to detect, prevent and respond to outbreak of diseases, with epidemic and pandemic proportions through a new set of initiatives is a significant GPG deliverable. Also included are Quad Vaccine Partnership, SOPs for pandemic response, over 1 billion vaccines aim, training public health specialists by Australia and the US with $84.5 m in 14 countries to help deal with infectious disease threats.

CRITICAL AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Cooperation in critical emerging technologies is another Quad GPG with Principles for R&D collaboration an Open Radio Access Network (RAN) and 5G program involving USD20 million commitment in deploying RAN for a secure, resilient, and interconnected telecom ecosystem, trusted tech solutions expansion and planning for the Asia Open RAN Academy (AORA) workforce training.
In AI the Quad AI Engage initiative deepens leading edge collaborative research to harness AI robotics and remote sensing for agricultural transformation with joint research and funding, building safe, secure, trustworthy AI systems for SDGs and promoting International cooperation and interoperability of AI governance systems, advanced communications tech standardization and conformity. An MOU on Supply Chain Contingency Network aims to facilitate collaboration in addressing semiconductor supply chain risks.
The Quad Cyber Challenge with 85,000 participants in IP region is active in convening conferences, boot camps, joint efforts for protecting critical infrastructure networks; a Working Group on Countering Disinformation/FIMI—Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference—has been established. In Space Applications and technologies cooperation is ongoing in earth observation data, India space based portal for Mauritius, initiatives for space situational awareness and space traffic coordination capabilities.

RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAINS
The Quad seeks to establish reliable and diverse supply chains for critical and rare earth minerals matching domestic resource mining with processing and manufacturing value chain; more generally build supply chain resilience and security through intergovernmental and public private collaboration.

CLIMATE ACTION
A Climate Working Group, Early Warning Systems and Climate Information Services initiative, (CIS) has been set up. The US is to provide support on climate resilience and training. Quad has created clean energy supply chains diversification programs. Australia has pledged $50 million, India is investing 2 m on Solar energy cooperation, Japan USD 122 m, US has loaned Tata Power USD250 m for a solar cell manufacturing facility in India that would serve the region.

MARITIME COOPERATION
Maritime cooperation includes help to access dark vessel maritime domain awareness data for 24 countries plus cooperation in legal, operational and technical maritime security and law enforcement knowledge domains. Coast Guard and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) cooperation has enhanced Quad capacity to give tangible benefits. Guidelines for Quad partnership on HADR have been tested in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam. Coordination, investment, rapid response and long-term resiliency in the IORA, SEA and PIC regions is envisaged.

MODALITIES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Quad engagement has been at Summit, Foreign Ministers and now Commerce Ministers level and among development finance institutions. Interactions have been on official track while engaging the academia and private sector. The Quad engages on bilateral / trilateral and quadrilateral basis and often involves other IP countries—allies and partners in the region and beyond. They complement, supplement and reinforce what’s done in the UN, IMF/WB, G20, APEC, ASEAN and IORA among others.

INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
India leads on themes where it has strengths and collaborates to gain from others. Quad enhances its overall strategic and security interests apart from SDG interest nationally and its projection in the Indian Ocean Region and the Global South. It becomes a vehicle for Trilateral—North -South-South —Cooperation and for establishing governance modules. Much of the Quad GPG work is in its initial stages but impact will be seen and its unique and added value realized in the short to medium term.

LOOKING FORWARD
As four democracies there will always be fluctuations in the extent and intensity of engagement of each incoming government when there is a change. In Australia we saw continued commitment under the Albanese Labour government as we are seeing in Post Abe Japan. The US has a Congressional Bicameral Quad Caucus. While the record of US engagement under President Trump 1.0 has been heartening, there might be change in policy priorities. We can expect certain GPGs to be deemphasized like climate action, clean energy and vaccine related cooperation. There may be a questioning of the very notion of GPG—as posited against the plain vanilla, transactional notion of what Makes America Great Again—MAGA and America First. The views expressed by the influential Elon Musk against the US giving foreign aid also casts some doubts about future US investment in GPGs.
The thrust of countering China is likely to continue in the Trump Administration. It would be best to get the strategic security community to invest both political and financial capital in Quad GPGs all of which can be framed as soft security contribution to MAGA. Also while no new initiatives need be taken, it is important that existing ones are implemented and bear fruit for its credibility. A case needs to be made anew and constituencies built in all four countries to change-proof this vital mission of Quad for the good of the Indo-Pacific region but also for humanity.

*Lakshmi Puri is a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women; and a former Ambassador of India.