 Hello everyone, welcome to another International Relations CAHPS view for the Shankar IAS Academy. Today we discuss the latest Quad meeting, the Quadrilateral meeting in Tokyo which concluded yesterday. You are aware of the origin and development of this grouping which had taken different shapes and sizes, not sizes, maybe shapes in the last few years and it came into being as some kind of a security dialogue in a formal way after the Chinese action in Ladakh in 2020. Till then India was rather reluctant to give it any kind of an alliance format but it became a formal kind of a grouping and also we had other groupings like orchestration same period. This meeting was held in Tokyo against the backdrop of a new development which is the emergence of Russia as a country of concern because of its attack on Ukraine as well as its close linkages with China because the concern of the Quad countries or democratic countries in the Pacific region were concerned about the expansionist policies of China. So though it was not specifically spelled out as something which is to counter China, it was quite obvious that that was the purpose but most of the things that it were of general interest to various countries, there were military exercise etc but it was more of a dialogue and a cooperative body rather than a military alliance because India had always not agreed to any military alliance but the complication which arose was when the war started in Ukraine and the western countries started countering Russia to weaken it with various sanctions and so on and naturally the United States as the leader of NATO was also interested in energizing Quad against Russia also not only China and this was because Russia and China had come to sign an agreement kind of treaty which unlimited cooperation and they became virtually partners in that arrangement. This happened just before Russia invaded Ukraine but this gave a new dimension to it and therefore there was a meeting in Melbourne where I talked about it to you sometime ago where the Americans, Australians and the Japanese wanted to bring in this issue of Ukraine as a threat to security about which India should mean the Quad should be concerned but India as you know had taken a neutral position on this issue and therefore we are not willing to bring that into the agenda of the Quad and this created some unpleasantness. Many countries faced in India's abstention at the United Nations on these issues because how is it that a democracy is supporting an authoritarian state and particularly because Russia and China are collaborating with each other so we took the position that we have certain interests and we will protect them but we are of course against any kind of war, any kind of violation of borders, territorial integrity etc. And you may remember I talked about the rising and dialogue where many European countries came and questioned us again on this. So just against this backdrop that the Quad met and it was obvious that the three other countries must have pressed India to take a different position. We don't know as nothing has been mentioned though all the three countries are supposed to have raised this issue in the Quad meeting but India stuck to its position that we are opposed to war, we would like to have reconciliation, diplomatic resolution and not any condemnation and that position seems to have been accepted by the rest of the Quad and therefore they sent this aside the issue of Russia and decided to design a number of measures to meet the continuing threat in the Indian Ocean region, Indo-Pacific region. And here Russia went on to the side of the Chinese because they raised even the question of the name of Indo-Pacific, they wanted it to be retained as Asia Pacific and that is one issue on which China and Russia think alike and naturally we would not like to change this nomenclature. So therefore Russia and China's collaboration on this issue became a little stronger. So what we see in the joint statement which is the pursuit after the Quad meetings in Tokyo there are also bilateral meetings and so on where all these issues may have been discussed. So it has come out with a broad agenda to confront the looming political and economic crisis. So it's not just the political, it is not just the expansionism of China that is threatening the world but there are many other things including the pandemic itself, the Korean war and the emerging tendencies around the world, terrorism, sectarianism, all these issues. So what has come out of the Quad meeting in Tokyo in a nutshell is that it has now a more composite agenda which includes all the threats to humanity in general and particularly in the context of Asia Pacific and the security of these four democratic countries. So with this expanded agenda our Prime Minister called the Quad a force for good. So he emphasized the more positive aspects of it. So it will not be against anybody but it will work in its own interest as a force of good, force for good without mentioning any of its military aspects. So this is the new development. But however all the discussions showed that there was no doubt that the Chinese threat was the reason for Quad to become a robust partnership and after China and Russia declared an alliance without boundaries and declared and attacked Ukraine, the Russia also became a natural concern for the Quad. So as I mentioned, Russia even objected to the name of Indo-Pacific but the Quad did not take any united action or a united stand against Russia because of India's neutrality. Both China and Russia knew the danger of the Quad coming up with a new agenda and therefore China promptly protested even before the conference and the Japanese have been reporting that even while the Quad conference was being held in Tokyo, not only Chinese fighter planes but also Russian fighter planes flew over Tokyo to give an indication of their objection to what was going on. So their concern is that Quad may become an agent of NATO and that was the message that they wanted to give that if they did that there would be danger of escalation. It is quite clear that India and we know from reports that these countries, Japan, Australia and the US raised the question of Ukraine and India maintained its position that the focus should be ending the conflict and the tragic humanitarian crisis but the differences between India and the rest of the Quad seem to have been resolved or at least narrowed down to what is fundamentally necessary. At the same time, the Quad announced several measures to counter China without naming it to enable the partners to monitor the Indo-Pacific region to ensure peace and stability there. So one of the essential strategic moves by Quad is to expand their information and knowledge about what is happening so several measures were taken and many of them were to be able to follow developments in Indian Ocean and also take out the measures as necessary. The first thing that they did was the joint statement, they have mentioned these several principles these are not new at all but they reiterated them in a systematic I mean as a list of the principles that Quad will follow. These are of course well known like the principles of freedom, rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty and territorial integrity, peaceful settlement of disputes without resorting to threat or use of force, any unilateral attempt to change the status quo and freedom of navigation and overflight all of which are essential to the peace stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region and the world in general. So this is the crux of the heart of the joint statement that they repeated these are all well known principles but when you repeat that in this context the meaning is very clear that somebody is violating peace and everybody knows who that somebody is who that two countries are. So they said that we will continue to act decisively together to advance these principles in the region and beyond and then they said we reaffirm our result to uphold the international rules-based order where countries are free from all forms of military, economic and political coercion. So the reiteration of these principles makes it clear that the Quad does not approve much of what is happening in the world and the criticism of some of the actions of China and Russia is implicit in the joint statement that is very clear. Then what are these measures they have outlined? The first one is called Indo Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness IPMDA. The idea is to offer it looks like an American initiative and they have promised to provide the countries effective integrated maritime domain awareness. So it's a euphemism for following all the likely military activities in the Indian Ocean region and then and this was extended not only to the Quad countries but also its partners in the South Pacific Island states as we know where there have been moves by China in Solomon Islands and others and that is what they have in mind and Southeast Asia of course but most of these countries China is making inroads and so they are saying that they will provide independent programs to these countries to monitor the development of the region and they have formed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient and how to work pricelessly to deliver tangible results in the region. So these are all words which clearly indicate that there are serious concerns about Russia and China among these countries and they will take preventive measures and Quad also this time spoke a little about the other hot spots in the world. For example it supported complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and condemned North Korea's destabilizing nuclear and missile tests. This is again a common western position but we also sympathize with that then it also called for the immediate end of violence in Myanmar and restoration of democracy there. Here of course India's view is slightly different we are a little more tolerant of the individual regime because we have vital interests in Myanmar but we support the initiatives taken by many countries particularly ASEAN countries to bring back democracy in Myanmar but we have not made it conditional we are continuing our cooperation with the military particularly because we feel that if we keep away the Chinese will have a walkover and therefore India has joined in this call for democracy but at the same time may not like to take any action and it is in our favor that the Quad took a very strong position against terrorist attacks including they mentioned the cross border attacks and named the Mumbai and Patan got attacks you know who as for Afghanistan it demanded that Afghan territory must never again be used to shelter or train terrorists. So what the joint statement says about terrorism is very much India's perspective and the other countries also face the same threat and therefore on terrorism there was a very strong position taken and coming to a more soft agenda of the Quad which were outlined in Tokyo, goal of global health and combatting COVID have been assigned a very high priority in the activities of the Quad. Sadly as you know during the height of the Quad there was hardly any international cooperation it was India who slowly started international cooperation started distributing you know we had this vaccine my three program it was all not very successful because people were still suspicious of these things but we are the ones who started off you know international cooperation in fighting against the Quad and the last meeting there was also an agreement that US will US and Japan will US will provide the funding Japan will provide the technology and India will be most of the manufacturing and then distributed with Australia's assistance some kind of a program was made and this was reinstated is reasserted and they said that the danger is not gone away and the countries must cooperate and several measures were outlined then turning to another soft agenda which is the climate change so Quad will step fastly implement the Paris Agreement as you know the Paris Agreement is still in existence and that has been of course amended by the COP26 in Glasgow so and therefore it launched the Quad launched the Quad climate change adaptation and mitigation package with you know mitigation is resolving the problems reducing the problems with climate change and adaptation is to in such situations where you cannot change adapt ourselves to the situation and make changes in your lifestyle etc so both mitigation and adaptation are important elements in fighting climate change and this was asserted and then on security advancing cyber security has also been identified as a priority for improving the defense capabilities of the partners so if you read the joint statement you will find the anxiety about the military aspect very much there and that India has also implicitly accepted it but at the same time we are not allowed to turn it into a military alliance and that and also emphasized that peace and tranquility are dependent not only on military security but also other aspects like cyber security climate change terrorism etc so what we have today for the Quad is a comprehensive agenda and that I would say is the the the achievement of the Tokyo summit you are asked you could say that it had a general agenda it was complicated but an agreement has been reached about a comprehensive agenda going beyond the security dialogue because non-conventional threats that we mentioned like climate change and terrorism and other priorities have come up and so we have the security aspect on one hand then we have the other aspects like COVID and the climate change so the one with a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific has emphasized the importance of fundamental values and principles and committed to work tirelessly to deliver tangible results to the region it has also agreed to maintain a continuous dialogue among themselves and it was agreed that also there will be a summit in Australia next year the what has really happened is the complications which arose because of where she are getting into the act and becoming a party or a counter to the Quad and that created some what shall we say some ripples and our position was criticized by the other three sometimes very softly would sometimes ration so nobody was very sure that how the Tokyo meeting will emerge so what has happened is that India's position has been understood and they have tried to contain it that the agreement in the consensus reached and they have now an agenda which is global which could counter not only the Chinese threat but also the other threats in the region so in a sense this meeting has been in advance and we can expect that in the depending on what happens in Ukraine when the weather when the war ends there may be a better possibility of better understanding of the situation but the present agenda of the United States to weaken Russia to defeat it is something which India does not subscribe to so we will concentrate on the other ideas and wait for the end of the war but one thing is clear is that we will not condemn anyone we will simply work with everybody for peace and resolution of conflicts so the principles have been established a structure has been created an agenda has been made so now it's a matter of implementation to make the Indo-Pacific more peaceful and more productive thank you very much I noticed it for me also it is a new formulation so obviously it means a secret passage because very often many of these warships etc when they go through these areas they do not identify themselves unless confronted so this has happened and this is being done by both sides and once you remember that an American ship came into our territorial waters and we raised objections but that is a usual thing that they do and but this is the first time I am seeing it in a document of this kind and obviously this is a danger that they anticipate that ships may come into the region without proper permissions and information because when they come into our region like in our territorial waters or the economic zone certain formalities are required and somebody must be dodging it maybe the Chinese and that must be the reason why they are talking about our ships I don't know whether it has any other technical definition but we'll look out