Agenda Driven

Col Ajay Singh (retd)

The most significant aspect of the Quad summit hosted by President Joe Biden in Washington this September was that it was held so soon after the virtual meeting of heads of states in March. It heralded one thing—Quad seems to be here to stay. Coming in the backdrop of the Afghanistan debacle, and the ripples caused by AUKUS, it is a message that the focus has indeed shifted to the Indo-Pacific, where this grouping hopes to counter an increasingly belligerent China.

Unfortunately, this meeting too, did not formalise the alliance, nor did it lay out a definite charter—less the fact that foreign ministers would meet once a year. But the meeting did highlight the concerns of the four members that ‘our shared futures will be written on the Indo-Pacific.’ And this grouping would help provide a balance in the region against an increasingly assertive China, and perhaps provide a security umbrella without overtly military overtones.

In the vision for ‘shared prosperity in the Indo-Pacific’ the Quad summit rolled out three C’s—Covid, critical technologies and climate change. The fourth ‘C’—China—was not mentioned. But it was the elephant in the room. What that implies is that the grouping aims to synergise the economic, ideological and technological clout of its members to provide a cohesive alternative to China.

Leaders of the QUAD countries in the US

The roll-out of 1.2 billion doses of vaccine for the region—in which the Indian Biological E will manufacture the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, whose technology will be supplied by the US; the financing by Japan and the delivery logistics by Australia is just one of the ways in which we can move together. The first attempt had been unfortunately stymied when India had been unable to export the vaccines because of the debilitating second wave—but now seems back on course. Even more important than the vaccine rollout was the convergence on critical technologies to ‘create resilient and dependable supply chains.’ This will move supply chains in critical fields like semi-conductors and telecom away from China. It would also help develop Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) for secure 5G networks. This will provide a 5G alternative to Chinese companies such as Huawei and Tencent, whose predatory snooping could be a severe security risk for the host nations.

This could be a massive opportunity for India. We have the manpower and intellectual capability for chip manufacturing, but not the manufacturing wherewithal. Pooling in the technological know-how and manufacturing capability from Japan and USA could enable us to become the hub of this vital component.

Other initiatives such as the development of the Blue E