The late Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, can claim to be the original proponent of the QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) in 2007. QUAD, or the “Democratic Security Diamond”, was envisaged as a strategic coalition of maritime democracies (the United States of America, Japan, India, and Australia), or like-minded nations, to work towards a “free and open Indo-Pacific” region.

What remained unsaid was the “elephant in the room” — the commonality of Sino-wariness that beset the four QUAD nations as they awoke to the realities of a belligerent, hegemonic, and expansionist China. Initial fanfare with the 2007 Malabar Exercise (Joint Naval Exercises) notwithstanding, the ideation went into dormancy for a decade, only to be revived in 2017 when China started stamping its footprint in the neighbourhood (South and East China Seas) and beyond (Belt and Road Initiative).

By 2017, specific factors such as the return of Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister, India’s Doklam face-off, worsening public sentiment against China in Australia, and an assertive US under a China-baiting Donald Trump contributed to the circumstantial momentum for QUAD. Ambiguous language like “desisting unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the Indo-Pacific” barely hid the fact that the real target was China.

Later, Joe Biden continued the commitment with intermittent dialogues and occasional........

© The Pioneer