{"id":42944,"date":"2018-10-24T12:47:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T01:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=42944"},"modified":"2018-10-24T12:47:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T01:47:47","slug":"the-real-significance-of-the-quad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-real-significance-of-the-quad\/","title":{"rendered":"The real significance of the Quad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In India, Australia and other Indo-Pacific countries, we have been regularly inundated with commentary about the \u2018Quad\u2019, the informal name for a grouping of countries comprising the United States, Japan, India and Australia. There are two popular refrains. One is\u00a0alarmist<\/a>: the Quad is a\u00a0military alliance<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0contain<\/a>\u00a0China and its very idea is provocative, divisive and unnecessary. This is the view of not just some\u00a0critics<\/a>\u00a0in the four countries, but also many\u00a0in China<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Southeast Asia<\/a>. The second and more common reaction is scorn<\/a>. For sceptics, the Quad has never amounted to much and is\u00a0unlikely to<\/a>,\u00a0given various\u00a0countries\u2019 hesitations<\/a>. The accusatory finger is usually pointed\u00a0at India<\/a>, sometimes at Australia<\/a>, and occasionally at the United States<\/a> after Donald Trump\u2019s election as president.<\/p>\n

Both views fundamentally mischaracterise the Quad and its objectives. For now, it is merely a bureaucratic-level foreign-ministry-led dialogue that meets<\/a> occasionally<\/a> after a 10-year hiatus. While the four countries have conducted some military activities together\u2014humanitarian assistance and disaster relief following the\u00a02004 Indian Ocean tsunami<\/a>, naval exercises<\/a> in 2007, and public appearances by senior military leaders<\/a>\u2014the Quad isn\u2019t a defence dialogue, much less an alliance. It serves the limited purpose of political signalling and improves coordination among a set of like-minded and capable maritime powers in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not the Quad\u2019s relatively modest activities to date that are the real story. Over the past two years, military engagements involving the US, Japan, India and Australia have broken new ground. Today, the four enjoy unprecedented levels of information and intelligence exchanges, personnel interactions, interoperable equipment and habits of cooperation. But by ignoring the rapidly growing military engagement among the four countries that comprise the Quad, many analysts are in danger of missing the forest for the trees.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s helpful to examine the Quad less as a bloc of four countries and more as a matrix of trilateral and bilateral relationships. The four already enjoy three trilateral and six bilateral strategic dialogues, not counting a host of other military engagements and working groups.<\/p>\n

Trilaterally,\u00a0US\u2013Japan\u2013Australia<\/a>\u00a0engagement is the most advanced, given the legacy of US alliances and the recently unveiled trilateral\u00a0infrastructure agreement<\/a>. Meanwhile, the\u00a0US\u2013India\u2013Japan<\/a>\u00a0trilateral dialogue is now held at the ministerial level, Japan has been permanently included<\/a>\u00a0in India\u2013US naval exercises, and a trilateral\u00a0infrastructure working group<\/a> has been established. A Japan\u2013India\u2013Australia<\/a>\u00a0trilateral dialogue was recently initiated.<\/p>\n

Other developments point to growing \u2018minilateralism\u2019. This year, India\u2019s air force participated in Australia\u2019s\u00a0Pitch Black<\/a>\u00a0exercise, representing a growing degree of comfort with defence cooperation in a regional context. The commonality of equipment\u2014notably\u00a0maritime patrol aircraft<\/a>\u2014is significant for improving collective maritime domain awareness and anti-submarine contingencies, and adds another element of interoperability. Nor are emerging regional trilateral relations exclusive: India and Australia have initiated a\u00a0trilateral dialogue with Indonesia<\/a>, the US and Japan meet regularly with South Korea, and all four countries have\u00a0deepened their ties<\/a>\u00a0with France<\/a>, which boasts a\u00a0remarkable presence<\/a>\u00a0in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

In addition, every constituent bilateral relationship among the Quad countries has strengthened in recent years. All six bilaterals now feature 2+2 dialogues involving the foreign and defence ministries. America\u2019s relations with Japan and Australia are naturally much more developed. Overcoming past squabbling over basing arrangements, the US and Japan have\u00a0recommitted themselves<\/a>\u00a0to their alliance. The US\u2013Australia relationship has also been reinforced with\u00a0US Marines in Darwin<\/a>\u00a0and continued\u00a0high-level political relations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two other bilateral relationships have grown in importance. For India, the US now rivals Russia as its most significant defence partner. Beyond a host of diplomatic, defence, staff and technical dialogues\u2014including the first 2+2 dialogue in September\u2014India\u2013US military exercises have become more regular, with\u00a0army special forces<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0air exercises<\/a>\u00a0reinitiated after a hiatus. After more than a decade of negotiations, a\u00a0logistics supply agreement<\/a>\u00a0and communications agreement<\/a> have been signed. India has also acquired several major\u00a0defence platforms<\/a>\u00a0from the US, and preliminary efforts at\u00a0joint defence production<\/a>\u00a0and research and development<\/a>\u00a0are underway. Similarly, the Japan\u2013Australia relationship has undergone some significant changes. In addition to their 2+2 dialogue and naval exercises, the two countries are planning their first bilateral\u00a0air exercises<\/a>\u00a0and are negotiating a\u00a0visiting forces agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The weakest military links among the Quad countries were traditionally India\u2019s relations with Japan and with Australia. In addition to the Malabar naval exercises, India and Japan may conduct their first air and ground force exercises<\/a> over the next year. India\u2013Japan staff talks have expanded to three services, and strategic dialogues have been elevated to the ministerial level. Japan has made offers<\/a> to India about the sale and co-production of defence equipment, and agreements<\/a>\u00a0on defence technology and the security of classified communications have been concluded. Even India\u2013Australia security ties have improved significantly over the past two years. The initiation of a\u00a02+2<\/a>\u00a0and new trilaterals have bolstered the strategic content of engagement. Military-to-military contact has also increased with the\u00a0Ausindex<\/a>\u00a0naval and Australia Hind army exercises, Australian participation in India\u2019s\u00a0Milan<\/a>\u00a0exercise, regular port visits, and staff talks.<\/p>\n

Thinking of the Quad in narrow terms\u2014cooperation solely and exclusively involving the US, Japan, India and Australia\u2014misses a far more important trend in regional security dynamics. Strategic partnerships between all four countries are steadily deepening, and this process has only accelerated. The growing number of military exercises, strategic dialogues, technical agreements and coordinated activities are manifestations of increasingly shared strategic worldviews, greater comfort levels and growing habits of cooperation. These are the trends that will matter much more for the balance of power and the prospects of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific than any amount of loaded commentary about the official quadrilateral dialogue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In India, Australia and other Indo-Pacific countries, we have been regularly inundated with commentary about the \u2018Quad\u2019, the informal name for a grouping of countries comprising the United States, Japan, India and Australia. There are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":872,"featured_media":42950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,56,2328,1435],"class_list":["post-42944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-india","tag-indo-pacific","tag-quad","tag-quadrilateral","dinkus-quad-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe real significance of the Quad | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-real-significance-of-the-quad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The real significance of the Quad | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In India, Australia and other Indo-Pacific countries, we have been regularly inundated with commentary about the \u2018Quad\u2019, the informal name for a grouping of countries comprising the United States, Japan, India and Australia. 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