Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a three-day visit to the US to participate in various programs, attend the Quad Summit, and have a bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden.
An official press statement highlighted the Quad as a key group of like-minded countries to work for peace, progress, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. This forum – Quadrilateral Initiative -was initially proposed by the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007 as a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.
Over the years, the Quad has focused on military cooperation, shared military concerns, climate change, public health, maritime issues, and humanitarian, and disaster relief, among others. The US President will host the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware on September 21.
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US Rebuilding Network of Alliances Via Quad
Mira Rapp-Hooper, an American political scientist, says Biden has made it a priority to invest in rebuilding the US’s network of alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific region. He has strengthened existing relationships and built new ones as well.
She highlighted that President Biden elevated the Quad to the leader level in 2021. He realized that bringing together four leading Indo-Pacific maritime democracies with shared priorities, mutual security interests, and strong bonds of friendship would make them and the region (Indo-Pacific) safer.
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This time around, the Quad Summit will make some ambitious announcements, including health security, humanitarian, maritime security, emerging technologies, and cyber security. A key focus will be the operationalization of the South Asia program through the Information Fusion Center-Indian Ocean Region based in India. This highlights India’s expanding role in the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and its commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.
