The sixth Quad Leaders’ Summit was held in US President Biden’s hometown, Wilmington, Dela ware, on 21 September, amid enduring wars in Europe and the Middle East, and China’s growing belligerent activities in the IndoPacific. This was the sixth summit of Quad leaders since it was formalised in March 2021 by President Biden, who has always taken keen interest in the framework of cooperation and coordination among the Quad members.

Though originally conceptualised as a coalition of relief and rehabilitation work comprising America, Australia, India, and Japan in the backdrop of the devastating tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in 2004, Quad, or “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue,” has evolved over the years into a forum for security dialogue between coalition partners. This coincided with the rise of China as a global economic and military power. In 2006, the then Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, mooted the idea of establishing a high-level strategic dialogue among the “Asia-Pacific Democratic G3 plus America.”

The first exploratory meeting of Quad leaders was held on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum summit in the Philippines in May 2007. The navies of the Quad countries conducted a naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal known as the Malabar exercise, which was originally a bilateral drill between India and the US. The latest edition of the Malabar Naval Exercise will be hosted by India in October with special focus on countering China’s growing maritime challenges in the South China Sea and the broader Indo-Pacific waters.

However, the initial enthusiasm shown by Quad leaders was short-lived, and it fell apart with the resignation of its key driver, Japanese PM Abe, and new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision to build good relations with China; he decided to pull out of the grouping. India was also not very comfortable with framing the Quad as an anti-China grouping. China’s increasing assertiveness and claims over disputed areas in the South and East China Seas and ambitious regional maritime agenda played a pivotal role in the revival of the Quad in 2017 after a hiatus of nearly a decade.

Considering China’s response and Australia’s strategic uncertainty with regard to China, India was initially hesitant about reviving Quad. However, India’s worsening relations with China after the 2017 Doklam standoff and the 2020 border clashes ended its hesitancy and provided further impetus to the revival of the Quad. The Quad’s summit level meeting could take place only in 2021, first since its inception in 2007. The naval exercises involving Quad members became a routine affair aimed at enhancing operational coordination, information sharing, and naval interoperability among the member countries. The joint statement issued by the leaders of the Quad grouping in Wilmington touches upon a variety of issues.

The leaders reiterated their resolve to uphold the international order based on the rule of law and strong support for human rights, freedom, democratic values, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and peaceful settlement of disputes and prohibition on the threat or use of force in accordance with international law. The Indo-Pacific region, which Quad leaders consider an indispensable element of global security and prosperity, has from the very beginning been the primary focus of Quad. Voicing serious concern over increasing militarisation of disputed territories, and dangerous and intimidating manoeuvres in the South China Sea, Quad leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient. They re-emphasised the importance of maintaining and upholding freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce and other uses of the sea consistent with international law.

While emphasising the importance of adherence to international law, Quad leaders stated that any maritime dispute, if it arises, must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the basic principles laid down in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea. The Quad leaders also agreed to push further the agenda of UN reform, especially making the Security Council more representative, inclusive, transparent, efficient, effective, democratic, and accountable through expansion in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership. On the sidelines of the summit, President Bid en also supported India’s case for permanent membership in the refor med Security Council. The joint statement expressed deepest concern over the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the worsening political, security, and humanitarian situation in Myanmar, and the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea.

They underscored the importance of upholding international law and reiterated that all states must refrain from the threat of or use of force against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. While remaining sensitive to the concerns of Israel, including the release of hostages held by Hamas, the leaders advocated for a sovereign, viable, and independent state of Palestine based on a two-state solution that enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in a just, lasting, and secure peace.

The Quad leaders were also quite focused on providing “public goods” that would deliver real, positive, and enduring impact for the Indo-Pacific and accordingly announced a wide range of cooperation initiatives such as vaccine roll-outs to combat the recent outbreak of Mpox, the Cancer Moonshot dealing with cervical cancer, and the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Package (QCHAMP) to enhance climate and clean energy and to achieve emissions reduction goals and energy security.

The Quad Ports of the Future Partnership aimed at improving the region’s connectivity through the development of quality, re – silient infrastructure; and the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AIENGAGE) was proposed to harness artificial intelligence, robotics, and sensing to transform agricultural approaches and empower farmers across the region. In order to mobilise investors in strategic technologies, including semiconductors, critical minerals, and quantum, the Quad Investors Network (QUIN) was announced. The Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) programme has been launched to enable Quad countries to rapidly coordinate in the face of natural disasters.

The Quad leaders also emphasised strengthening the deep and enduring people-to-people ties, including the fellowship initiative for building a network of the next generation of scientists, technocrats, and policymakers. While India announced award of fifty Quad scholarships, worth $500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific to pursue undergraduate engineering programmes at government technical institutions, Japan decided to support Quad Fellows to study in Japan. While Quad has over the years positioned itself as an effective counterweight against China, the joint statement failed to offer any concrete and actionable blueprint for countering the challenges posed to the region by China. The lack of any roadmap for close military cooperation among members to take on the emerging Chinese threat, surprises many critics.

The informal nature of Quad is often problematic. Quad needs a more coherent and tight-knit organisation with its own charter and a permanent secretariat. Despite many shortcomings, the achievements of the Quad cannot be completely dismissed. The series of initiatives announced by Quad, ranging from health to infrastructure, at least, demonstrate the willingness of members to work together on a broad framework of cooperation that is not limited only to countering China but also undertaking projects beneficial to the people of the region. The developmental and people-centric initiatives may take along regional countries that have been sceptical of Quad’s maritime security initiatives and reluctant to see the making of a new NATO type American-led military alliance in the region. PM Modi’s statement that the grouping was “not against anybody” was reassuring.

(The writer is Professor and Head, Department of Strategic and Security Studies, Aligarh Muslim University)