India will hold the official level talks on the ‘Quad’ Asia-Pacific formation on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Singapore.
What are the prospects?
The Quadrilateral Group consists of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.
The Quad has a shared objective to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.
The present meeting comes a year after it was launched in Manila during the ASEAN.
The discussion will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas about the future of the Asia-Pacific region.
The meeting is likely to focus on infrastructure projects and on maritime security schemes in the region.
Building humanitarian disaster response mechanisms is also expected to be on the agenda.
Japan - India and Japan have recently announced a series of joint projects.
This is in terms of what they have called the “Asia-Africa growth corridor” in the Indo-Pacific region.
Among the projects that they will work together on are
the Jamuna Railway bridge in Bangladesh
other bridges in northeastern States of India
housing, school and electricity projects in Rohingya areas in Myanmar
an LNG plant in Sri Lanka
a cancer hospital in Kenya
Australia - Australia has unveiled an ambitious $2 billion project to fund infrastructure.
There are plans to build maritime and military infrastructure in the Pacific region, where it is willing to cooperate with other Quad members.
Others - The four countries are expected to talk about other regional developments.
These include Maldives elections, the collapse of the government in Sri Lanka and the latest developments in North Korea.
What are the challenges ahead?
Objective - Despite the potential for cooperation, the Quad remains a mechanism without a defined strategic mission.
In 2007, when the grouping was first formed following cooperation after the 2004 tsunami, the idea was to better coordinate maritime capabilities for disaster situations.
When revived in 2017, the grouping seemed to have become a counter to China’s growing inroads into the region.
So Quad members still face the challenge of defining its common agenda.
Region - A common definition of the geographical area encompassed is yet to be found.
The US sees itself and India as the extremes of the Indo-Pacific.
On the other hand, India and Japan have included the oceans up to Africa in their definition.
The entire focus on the Indo-Pacific makes the Quad a maritime, rather than land-based, grouping.
This raises questions whether the cooperation extends to the Asia-Pacific and Eurasian regions.
Maritime - Even on maritime exercises, there is a lack of concurrence.
E.g. India has not admitted Australia in the Malabar exercises with the U.S. and Japan, despite requests from it.
It is felt that it would be too early to discuss “militarising” the Quad.
India has also resisted raising the level of talks from an official to the political level.
India is the only member not in a treaty alliance with the other Quad countries which could possibly slow down progress.
Given all, the outcome of the Singapore meet will be judged by the ability of the group to issue a joint declaration, unlike in the last two meets.
