Post Quad era for India

Context: Future possible rearrangement of the global structures will have major consequences for India’s economic prosperity and technological future.

What are the likely changes?

• Expansion of the Five Eyes forum with inclusion of India: Recently India was invited to join the Five Eyes meeting earlier this month in Tokyo on communications security.
• The growth of “Quad Plus”: Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam can be added along with the existing Quad members.
• Emergence of league of democracies: To address a wide range of issues, including the defence of shared values, commerce, corruption, taxation, climate change and digital governance.
• Emergence of the ideas of the “free world: New international coalitions will be formed to address the emerging challenges from China.
• Expansion of G-7: It will have new nations like Australia, India, Russia and South Korea.
• Coalition of 10 democracies, including India: it will contribute to the construction of secure 5G networks and reduce the current dependence on China.
• Demand to reform the global trading system: it has been distorted by Chinese success in subverting it.
• Reforming the global trade rules: Moving away from the free trade and more focus on self-reliance. For example, American industrial policy and “Buy American” strategy and India’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.
• Development of Clean Network: Clean Network is a broader effort among like-minded countries to build secure technology ecosystems.it eliminates untrustworthy vendors from telecom systems, digital apps, trans-oceanic cables and cloud infrastructure.

What are the opportunities for India?

• India will engage more closely with Japan and Australia: it will help in developing resilient supply chains to reduce the reliance on China.
• Opportunities for responsible development of AI: France and Canada have invited India to join the Global Partnership on artificial intelligence a collaboration of 15 countries.

The post-Quad era opens a new phase in which India, for the first time, can help shape global institutions.