Quad set for institutionalization

During the historic first physical Quad summit on September 24 in Washington, the leaders of the four countries in that grouping agreed on deeper cooperation in the space and cyber realms. The US, Japan, India and Australia will share, among other things, images and other data collected by satellites to help analyze the risks of climate change and predict natural disasters in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Quad leaders expressed interest in continued face-to-face meetings, thereby laying the foundation for the institutionalization of the informal grouping.

During the meeting, US President Joe Biden underlined that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is distinct from the new trilateral security partnership among his country, Australia and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS.

Notwithstanding US statements, many security analysts see the potential for future interconnections between the AUKUS and

Quad formats. For example, the two blocs may cooperate in the future to strengthen their countries' maritime awareness capacities by monitoring China's expansion in the South China and East China Seas through satellites and other capabilities.

Beijing as much as acknowledged these potential connections when, the day before the Quad summit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: "China always believes that no regional cooperation mechanism should target a third party or harm its interests…. Such efforts find no support and are doomed to failure."

By contrast, the Japanese prime minister at the time, Yoshihide Suga, welcomed the initiative to establish AUKUS, which he said "plays an important role in peace and stability in the IndoPacific region."

Managing alliances enhanced soft power

The combined defense expenditure of the Quad countries is almost four times that of the People's Republic of China. However, the

and

Quad faces challenges to cooperation. Most notably, India's history of "strategic autonomy" limits integration. India has long rejected the idea of the Quad evolving into a military alliance.

The Biden administration has taken a twofold approach to foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region. First, the US has strengthened institutional cooperation with "like-minded partners" via the Quad and AUKUS, while balancing its interests in existing alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the JapanUS alliance, and attempting to revive moribund unions such as that with the Philippines.

Second, the Biden administration has focused on soft-power projects, whether "vaccine diplomacy," infrastructure strategies such as B3W (Build Back Better World), or the Blue Dot Network.

This overall two- pronged approach is a "multi-speed," pragmatic and calibrated form of US cooperation with Indo- Pacific partners, whether bilateral or multilateral, recognizing the needs and real possibilities of partnerships in the region.

Cooperation across issues During last month's summit, the Quad leaders followed up on their virtual meeting in March. They focused mainly on issues such as exports of Covid-19 vaccines, efforts to strengthen semiconductor supply chains, raising awareness of the "maritime area," the US infrastructure initiative B3W, and cooperation in the development of sensitive technologies, including fifth-generation telecommunications (5G).

This was also reflected in the official documents from the September summit: the Leader's Statement, as well as the Quad Factsheet. In addition to the traditional "mantra" on ASEAN centrality, the Quad leaders welcomed in a joint statement the adoption of the EU Strategy on the IndoPacific.

Covid vaccines

During the online summit in March, the Quad leaders agreed to increase Covid-19 vaccine production in India and distribute doses across the Indo- Pacific region with financial and logistical support from the other three Quad members.

‘‘ This overall two-pronged approach is a "multi-speed," pragmatic and calibrated form of US cooperation with IndoPacific partners, whether bilateral or multilateral, recognizing the needs and real possibilities of partnerships in the region.”