Manila: India, the US, Japan and Australia resurrected their “quadrilateral” grouping and gave a thumbs up for a “free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region” after the first meeting of officials on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Manila on Sunday. The “quad” meeting came even as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met for a few minutes as they arrived for the gala dinner hosted by the Philippines. Modi and Trump later held a bilateral meeting on Monday afternoon.
At the quadrilateral meeting, India was represented by Pranay Verma, joint secretary in charge of East Asia, and Vinay Kumar, joint secretary (south). The US was represented by assistant secretary of state Alice Wells while Japan sent deputy minister for foreign policy Satoshi Suzuki. As a first effort, the exercise was quite successful, sources said. “The discussions focused on cooperation based on their converging vision and values for promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in an increasingly inter-connected region that they share with each other and with other partners,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
The top items at the dialogue included ways of maintaining the “rules-based order” in the Indo-Pacific theatre, a review of the happenings in the Indo-Pacific and North Korea. An Australian statement issued at the end of the talks said, “The officials examined ways to achieve common goals and address shared challenges in the region. This includes upholding the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific... freedom of navigation and overflight, increase connectivity, countering terrorism and upholding maritime security.” Japan, too, issued a similar statement as did the US.
But while the US, Australia and Japan emphasised talks on the N Korea nuclear issue, the MEA skipped the discussion on it in its readout. Raveesh Kumar said, “They agreed that a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region serves long-term interests of all countries in the region and of the world. Officials also exchanged views on addressing common challenges of terrorism and proliferation linkages impacting the region and on enhancing connectivity.”
The American South Asia strategy and Asia-Pacific strategy closely hew to the Indian point of view. Indian sources said that for now, the US and India were on the “same page” when it came to both Afghanistan and China. Trump openly renamed Asia-Pacific as the new Indo-Pacific, a sign that USA would put India front and centre in its Asia strategy. This has many connotations, including cooperative security strategies in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.
For the first time, an Indian warship in the East China Sea was refuelled by a US ship earlier this week, an example of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement being put into action. While all four members deny any connection of the quadrilateral to China, there is absolutely no doubt that the rise in Chinese power has led the four countries to balance that rise and perhaps contest it.
