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Quad Ministers set to meet in Australia

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Quad Ministers set to meet in Australia

  • External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will begin a visit to Australia on Thursday and attend a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Quad (India, Australia, United States, Japan)
  • The meet will exchange views on regional strategic issues given their shared vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
  • The meet is expected to discuss cooperation on vaccines, technology and regional security issues including related to China.

Agenda for Meeting

  • To review ongoing Quad cooperation and build on the positive and constructive agenda announced by the Leaders at the two Summits in 2021
  • To address contemporary challenges such as the COVID pandemic, supply chains, critical technologies, climate change, infrastructure etc.
  • The Quad Foreign Ministers meet is expected to lay the groundwork for the second Quad leaders summit likely to take place this summer.

About QUAD

  • The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is an informal strategic forum that brings together the US, Japan, Australia, and India for summits, intelligence exchanges, and military drills.
  • In 2007, the forum began as a dialogue.
  • The diplomatic and military agreement was largely interpreted as a response to China's growing economic and military might.
  • The guiding concepts are considered to be ensuring a rules-based global order, a liberal trading system, and freedom of navigation.

About First Leaders Summit of QUAD

  • In September 2021, the four leaders, meeting in Washington for the first time.
  • It laid out an ambitious agenda for the grouping, from cooperating on vaccines to regional infrastructure and critical technologies such as 5G.
  • The four countries pledged to donate more than 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses globally and produce at least 1 billion doses by the end of 2022.
  • In March last year, the four countries also set up a new critical and emerging technologies group focusing on 5G, technical standards and technology supply chains.
  • Also in the works is a joint initiative to “identify vulnerabilities” and “bolster supply-chain security” for semiconductors.

QUADs Evolution

  • China is the most important driver of the Quad's evolution.
  • The Quad's strategic glue is China's military aggressiveness against India and Japan, its attempts to corrupt Australian civil society, and its acceptance of open geopolitical rivalry with the US.
  • The members of the Quad are currently being driven by China's actions in the region and its ""sudden turn toward excessive hostility.""
  • The United States wants to formalise and expand this informal alliance.

Significance of QUAD

  • All countries in the Indo-Pacific area, as well as the rest of the globe, benefit from a free, open, wealthy, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
  • Taking on common terrorist and proliferation issues.
  • Maintaining the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, including respect for international law, freedom of navigation, and overflight.
  • Involving the United States and Japan in South Asian development initiatives will provide the required funds.

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