Quad summit and Indian interests

The Quad summit that took place in Japan is hope-inspiring and a significant achievement for India, especially at a time when tensions are rife in the country’s borders and enemy nations are continuing with their attempts to destabilize the country’s development.

The summit which cemented co-operation and partnership in the trade, commerce, education and employment sectors among the member countries has turned into a strong warning to China.

China, which is unhappy with India’s relevance and growth in the international arena, has been needlessly creating provocations along India’s borders for years now. China has also been trying since long to form a front of inimical countries to hinder India’s growth in the region. The summit in Tokyo, Japan, has given a strong warning to China’s attempts to unilaterally change the status quo in the Indo-pacific region.

The member countries of the Quad have decided to jointly prevent encroachment, provocation, attempts to increase conflict in the region, deployment of military in conflicts, using coast guard vessels dangerously, creating disturbances along the coasts of other countries, etc. These are decisions that favor India.

The joint statement by the Quad countries repeated and affirmed its commitment towards the Indo-Pacific region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were directly present at the fourth Quad summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was able to interact with these heads of states and this helped to ensure large numbers of investments and greater cooperation in trade and commerce.

US President Joe Biden revealed in Tokyo several new agreements including a trade and commerce agreement prepared to involve 13 countries including India and led by the US and an Indo-Pacific economic package. Economists see this as a partnership to overcome China’s growing economic presence. This is borne out by the fact that 40 percent of the world’s domestic income is from the US, India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei and Indonesia, which are member countries of the Quad. China’s supremacy in the region will decline with the Quad agreement helping the US to simplify and facilitate trade relations among the Asian countries. Moreover, economists believe that the agreement will help member countries to overcome the difficulties created by disasters like the Covid and the war in Ukraine. The decisions taken by the heads of states at the Quad to improve mutual relations between the countries they represent is very useful to India. 100 students from India, Australia and Japan will get graduate fellowships to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics; aid of 5000 crore US dollars for five years to improve basic amenities in countries of the Indo-Pacific, green hydrogen, clean energy, package to prepare for disaster management, cooperation in the latest high technology communications field including 5G are some of the benefits India will get through cooperation among the member countries.

India’s greatest achievement in the field of trade from the Quad summit is that the US has become India’s biggest trade partner overtaking China. This opens up great prospects for India in all fields. According to the ministry of commerce, bilateral trade between India and the US was worth 11.942 crore US dollars (9.26 lakh crore rupees) in the economic year 2021-22. It was only 8,051 crore US dollars (6.24 lakh crore rupees) in the previous year. Both exports and imports from the US have increased considerably. At the same time, bilateral trade with China is worth 11.542 crore US dollars (8.95 lakh crore rupees). China has been India’s biggest trade partner since 2013-14. As a consequence of the Quad summit, India’s trade partnership with China is declining. Experts in the field of foreign trade say that bilateral trade with the US will increase even more as a result of the strengthening of US-India ties. Besides, the growth in the number of countries that approach India for distribution chains shows that India is fast emerging as a dependable trade partner in the global market.

Japanese companies are coming forward for partnerships with India in its Smart City and 5G projects. This has to be seen as an outcome of the Quad summit.

With India, which is the world’s largest democracy and a nurturer of the values of secularism and tolerance, growing and developing in trade and commerce every passing day, it will not be long before it becomes the focal point of the world.

(The writer is the Chairman of the World Hindu Parliament and a former President of Fokana)