How Quad consolidates itself to counter growing Chinese hegemony

October 28, 2024
Posted by: Ambassador Gurjit Singh
Categories: China, Indo Pacific

If the Quad initiatives provide viable alternatives for countries in the Indo-Pacific region, they don’t need to have a total dependence on China

At the farewell Quad Summit hosted by President Joe Biden in Delaware, the Quad showed clear signs of consolidation. For Biden, it was a fitting tribute because it was under his presidency that the Quad raised itself to a summit. Now it has met for the sixth time, twice virtually. Quad foreign ministers have met eight times over the last five years, and Quad commerce and industry ministers and development finance institutions are scheduled to start regular meetings too.

The most prominent message from the Quad Summit, thus, is that the Quad is here to stay, to undertake collaborative ventures for public good, and through such functional cooperation, maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific and challenge all efforts seeking hegemony in the region.

While China is not mentioned in the Wilmington Declaration, the intention is clear: China will not be allowed to get away with its strategic and economic dominance. The Quad will engage with forms of functional, technological, and related cooperation and engage countries and regional institutions, particularly ASEAN, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

Sponsored Links

There are major thrust areas in which Quad consolidation is seen, which will challenge China’s efforts in the region. The first of these is in the maritime domain. Given China’s pressure on the Philippines in the South China Sea, all Quad partners strengthened, individually, their relationship with the Philippines and have a common approach, which is not yet a formal Quad approach but helps in building common understanding.

As many as 25 countries have benefitted from the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) related to dark vessel movements in the region. The Quad helped them to monitor activity in their Exclusive Economic Zone, which particularly focuses on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. Most IUU in the region is conducted by Chinese fishing boats guarded by the Chinese Coast Guard, and this is a definite challenge to them.

This partnership is to encompass maritime security and cover new technologies and data inflows. Three initiatives in this are now underway. For the first time, the Quad Coast Guards would launch a ship observer mission in 2025 to improve interoperability and coordination in the Indo-Pacific. A Quad Indo Pacific logistics network pilot project is underway. This will seek a combined airlift capacity among Quad partners and leverage logistic strengths to provide Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the region more effectively. The HADR has been one of the cardinal principles since the 2004 tsunami in the region, which brought the Quad together. The Quad already has a partnership on HADR, and guidelines for this partnership will now be enhanced.

This partnership came into play in May 2024, when landslides occurred in Papua New Guinea and when Typhoon Yagi hit Vietnam, Myanmar, and other ASEAN countries. For Myanmar, it is mainly an Indian effort since other Quad members are aloof from the Myanmar junta.

Another important and clear challenge to the way China operates is the Health Partnership. During Covid, the Quad had come together with a vaccine initiative, which delivered 400 million doses to the Indo-Pacific and 800 million vaccines globally. By 2023, this had grown into the Quad Health Security Partnership, which continues, particularly for pandemic preparation. The current Mpox outbreak is now bringing Quad efforts together for equitable access to effective quality vaccines, which will include expanding vaccine manufacturing in developing countries. This is a clear challenge to China.

The Quad Cancer Moonshot is another important initiative focussing on collaboration, including with the private and civil society sectors, to reduce the incidence of suffering from cancer. Initially focussing on cervical cancer, it will work towards other forms. The US would provide training and finance for private sector projects. Australia is enhancing the Elimination Partnership in the Indo-Pacific for Cervical Cancer Program (EPICC), which already covers 11 countries. India would provide vaccines and detection kits and also use its digital public infrastructure by expanding it to cancer screening. Japan will provide medical equipment, particularly focusing on ASEAN countries. The Quad countries would collaborate for further research and development to enhance the participation of the private and civil society sectors to reduce the incidence of cancer.

China’s main strength in the region is its support for infrastructure through the Belt and Road Initiative. The Quad wants to challenge this by improving regional connectivity through quality infrastructure. New partnerships have been announced. This includes a partnership for ports of the future. The Quad Infrastructure Fellowships now cover 2200 experts working on disaster-resilient infrastructure.

The Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience is providing quality undersea cable networks that are free from Chinese domination. Australia has a centre for this announced in July 2024, which is building human capacity. Japan will provide technical cooperation for this, particularly in the South Pacific. The US is expected to contribute training programs to support cable connectivity, which presently focuses on the Pacific Island countries and their requirements. India is working on maintenance of such cables through harnessing Quad repair capabilities.

Through such efforts, the Quad, which is working a tad slowly in real terms, is expected to challenge the might of China, whose technology is considered to be robust but lacking in openness.

Finally, the challenge of critical and emerging technologies is what the Quad is pursuing. The next real battle between the Quad and China for the hearts and minds of all the countries in the Indo-Pacific is over access to transparently available and dependable technologies. Earlier, the open radio access network in the Pacific was announced. Now this is being expanded to the ASEAN region, beginning with the Philippines. Japan and the US are supporting the global expansion of the Open Radio Access Network (RAN) field trials and the Asia Open RAN Academy.

Quad members consult frequently, exchange ideas to advance shared priorities, and deliver benefits for partners across the Indo-Pacific. The Quad is here to stay. They are engaging the regional institutions on their priorities. If the Quad initiatives provide viable alternatives for countries in the region, they don’t need to have a total dependence on China. The Quad is not sending warships to counter China in the Indo-Pacific but is now into moonshots to build the region’s future.

The author is a former ambassador to Germany, Indonesia, Ethiopia, ASEAN and the African Union. He tweets @AmbGurjitSingh. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author.

How Quad consolidates itself to counter growing Chinese hegemony

Leave a Reply Cancel reply