Sukhmani Kooner, Pune
PM Modi’s 3-day US visit from September 21 to 23 was packed with top-tier engagements. The first on the agenda was to attend the annual Quad Summit in Wilmington, Delware.
The United States, India, Australia, and Japan are the four members of the informal strategic alliance known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), or Quad. One of the key objectives of Quad is to promote an inclusive, open, free, and wealthy Indo-Pacific area. In 2007, the Quad convened in conjunction with the ASEAN conference for the first time. Seen as a coalition of maritime democracies, the group participates through meetings, periodic summits, intelligence exchanges, and joint military exercises among the member nations.
On Saturday, the four-member security alliance announced, “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”. In the 5700-word Wilmington Declaration Joint Statement, the leaders- President Joe Biden of the US, Narendra Modi of India, Kishida Fumio of Japan, and Anthony Albanese of Australia, announced to be “more strategically aligned than ever before”.
The statement issued is an indirect reference to China’s expansionist tendencies which the Quad will counter, “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. We strongly oppose any destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion”.
In addition, it expressed serious concern over aggressions in the Indo-Pacific and denounced “recent illicit missile launches in the region”. In the statement they specified that they want a region in which no nation rules over another or is ruled over by any other; a place where every nation is free from coercion and has the autonomy to shape its future. They committed to maintaining an open and stable international system that upholds democratic values, sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights, the rule of law, the principle of freedom, and the prohibition against the use or threat of force in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter.