{"id":33772,"date":"2018-10-30T14:19:57","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T08:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=33772"},"modified":"2018-10-30T14:19:57","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T08:49:57","slug":"quad-confusion-th-op","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/quad-confusion-th-op\/","title":{"rendered":"Quad confusion (TH Op)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/quad-confusion\/article20723202.ece\"><strong>Quad confusion<\/strong><\/a> <strong>(TH Op)<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 10 days after the Quadrilateral meeting, or \u2018Quad\u2019, involving secretary-level officials of India, Japan, Australia and the U.S., the dust is yet to settle on just what was decided among them<\/p>\n<p><strong>What<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The differences in statements show that the countries lack a common aim<\/p>\n<p><strong>Four separate statements<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A cursory look at these statements reveals the basic differences in intent: while all four referred to keeping a \u201cfree and open Indo-Pacific\u201d, the Ministry of External Affairs statement did not mention upholding \u201cmaritime security\u201d as an objective, while the statements of the U.S., Australia and Japan did. Similarly, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made no mention of enhancing \u201cconnectivity\u201d as an aim, which the other three did<\/p>\n<p><strong>Effect: The Quad is yet to decide what its real aim is<\/strong>: maritime security, connectivity, countering China\u2019s moves in the Indo-Pacific and on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), or a combination of all three.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Only India openly in opposition to BRI amongst the Quad members<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. President lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping and the two signed a slew of agreements, including one for a joint fund for the $40 billion Silk Road Fund meant to finance BRI projects<\/li>\n<li>Despite all the concerns expressed by the countries of the Quad, India remains the only one to openly oppose the BRI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>On the maritime front: India is the only country in the Quad that is not part of a military alliance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India declined Australia\u2019s request to join the Malabar exercises, and just days before the Quad, it was said there were no plans for joint patrols with the U.S., or any country that is not a \u201cmaritime neighbour\u201d of India, which would rule out Australia and Japan too<\/p>\n<p><strong>Effect:<\/strong> If India\u2019s intentions are only to patrol the Indian Ocean part of the Indo-Pacific, it remains to be seen what reciprocal value the Quad would have<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where the government stands on India\u2019s position in the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How would India explain not joining a security cooperation arrangement within the Quad, even though it joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation this year?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Giving in to demands for greater engagement in the East with the Quad will need to be calibrated with concrete outcomes on India\u2019s concerns with terror from Pakistan, and a free hand to pursue ties with Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quad confusion (TH Op)\u00a0 Context More than 10 days after the Quadrilateral meeting, or \u2018Quad\u2019, involving secretary-level officials of India, Japan, Australia and the U.S., the dust is yet to settle on just what was decided among them What The differences in statements show that the countries lack a common aim Four separate statements A&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/quad-confusion-th-op\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Quad confusion (TH Op)\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704890352},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}