Quad statement includes subtle warning to China over Indo-Pacific

The four-member Quad is a force for good and is more strategically aligned than ever before, a joint declaration issued after the meeting of the grouping’s leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida, and Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese take part in a Quad leaders summit family photo in Claymont, Delaware, on September 21, 2024. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Hosted by President Joe Biden, the Quad Leaders’ Summit took place on Saturday in his hometown Wilmington, Delaware. It was attended by Prime Minister Modi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan.

‘Four years since elevating the Quad to a leader-level format, the Quad is more strategically aligned than ever before and is a force for good that delivers real, positive, and enduring impact for the Indo-Pacific,’ said the Wilmington Declaration issued after the fourth in-person Quad Summit.

‘We celebrate the fact that over just four years, Quad countries have built a vital and enduring regional grouping that will buttress the Indo-Pacific for decades to come,’ the declaration said.

‘As four leading maritime democracies in the Indo-Pacific, we unequivocally stand for the maintenance of peace and stability across this dynamic region, as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity,’ it said, adding the grouping strongly opposes any destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion, in a veiled reference to China.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

It claims sovereignty over all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims.

‘We condemn recent illicit missile launches in the region that violate UN Security Council resolutions. We express serious concern over recent dangerous and aggressive actions in the maritime domain. We seek a region where no country dominates and no country is dominated one where all countries are free from coercion, and can exercise their agency to determine their futures,’ the declaration said.

The four nations are committed to upholding a ‘stable and open’ international system, with its strong support for human rights, the principle of freedom, the rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and peaceful settlement of disputes and prohibition on the threat or use of force under international law, including the UN Charter.

The leaders announced the Quad Cancer Moonshot, a groundbreaking partnership to save lives in the Indo-Pacific region.

‘Building on the Quad’s successful partnership during the COVID-19 pandemic, our collective investments to address cancer in the region, our scientific and medical capabilities, and contributions from our private and non-profit sectors, we will collaborate with partner nations to reduce the burden of cancer in the region,’ it said.

The Quad Cancer Moonshot will focus initially on combatting cervical cancer — a preventable cancer that continues to claim many lives — in the Indo-Pacific region while laying the groundwork to address other forms of cancer as well.

India has committed to providing Human papillomavirus (HPV) sampling kits, detection kits, and cervical cancer vaccines worth USD 7.5 million to the Indo-Pacific region.

Prime Minister Modi, announcing the grant, asserted that it was made under India’s vision of ‘One Earth, One Health’.

India, through its $10 million commitment to the WHO’s Global Initiative on Digital Health, will offer technical assistance to interested countries in the Indo-Pacific region for the adoption and deployment of its Digital Public Infrastructure that helps in cancer screening and care.

The QUAD nations announced a new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI), to enable their partners in the region to maximise tools provided through Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) and other Quad partner initiatives to monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behaviour.

‘We look forward to India hosting the inaugural MAITRI workshop in 2025. Furthermore, we welcome the launch of a Quad maritime legal dialogue to support efforts to uphold the rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific. In addition, Quad partners intend to layer new technology and data into IPMDA over the coming year to continue to deliver cutting edge capability and information to the region,’ the declaration said.

The QUAD nations also announced that the US Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, and Indian Coast Guard plan to launch a first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission in 2025, to improve interoperability and advance maritime safety and continue with further missions in future years across the Indo-Pacific.

They also announced the launch of a Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project to pursue shared airlift capacity among the four nations and leverage the collective logistics strengths to support civilian response to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific region.

Announcing the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership, which will harness the grouping’s expertise to support sustainable and resilient port infrastructure development across the Indo-Pacific in collaboration with regional partners, the declaration said that they intend to hold a Quad Regional Ports and Transportation Conference, hosted by India in Mumbai.

‘Through this new partnership, Quad partners intend to coordinate, exchange information, share best practices with partners in the region, and leverage resources to mobilise government and private sector investments in quality port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific region,’ the joint statement said.

Applauding the expansion of the Quad Infrastructure Fellowships to more than 2,200 experts, the declaration noted that Quad partners have already provided well over 1,300 fellowships since the initiative was announced at last year’s Summit.

Further, it said the four countries look forward to launching the Quad BioExplore Initiative — a funded mechanism that will support joint AI-driven exploration of diverse non-human biological data across all four countries.

This project will also be underpinned by the forthcoming Quad Principles for Research and Development Collaborations in Critical and Emerging Technologies, the joint declaration said.

The Quad Leaders’ Summit this year was earlier supposed to be held in India, but President Biden was keen to hold the event in his hometown.

The US, Japan, India, and Australia had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the ‘Quad’ or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

The four-member Quad, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, advocates upholding a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

China claims that the grouping aims to contain its rise.