A Delicate Balance

While the Quad meets India’s aspiration of becoming “a stabilising power”, the “India way” is not only being tested by China, but by other members of the group, particularly the US

- Col R Hariharan

INDIA’S strategic security challenges have become more complex after the “coming of age” of the Quad— the Quadrilateral strategic grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia. The Quad is no doubt China centric and was formed to ensure a free and open international order based on the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific. However, the virtual summit meeting of the leaders of the four countries, held on March 12, identified a whole array of interests, well beyond the traditional contours of the Indo-Pacific.

The smorgasbord of Quad objectives typically include “the economic and health impacts of Covid-19” and climate change. Universal issues like managing cyberspace, critical technologies, counterterrorism, quality infrastructure investment, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as managing maritime domains, also figure in Quad’s areas of interest.

India is the only Quad member sharing a 3,488-km-long land border with China. Since the last decade, China had been creating maritime assets in the Indian Ocean in Myanmar, Hambantota (Sri Lanka), Gwadar (Pakistan) and Djibouti (Africa). India has a pivotal role in not only managing the maritime security of the Indian Ocean, but also in interdicting any threat to international sea lanes at choke points. This was evident from the number of bilateral, trilateral and quadrilateral exercises conducted with the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean this year.