Broadening the Quad’s appeal in the Indo-Pacific
Authors: William Choong and Sharon Seah, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
The wilderness years of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), after its initial inception during the 2004 Asian tsunami, are over. The latest summit in Tokyo reaffirmed its mission as a ‘force for good’ while promising a broad array of Indo-Pacific cyber security, maritime awareness, pandemic recovery, space, climate change and infrastructure initiatives.
At the recent IISS Shangri-La Dialogue held in Singapore, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasised the importance of the Quad in promoting a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ and the need to cooperate with ASEAN to achieve these goals. But the group will need to consider the region’s needs to get support for its vision.
Meeting for their fourth leaders’ summit in just over a year, the Quad appears to have finally turned a corner with more coherent and cohesive language directed at upholding the so-called rules-based order. Compared with previous joint statements, the May 2022 Tokyo summit was replete with China-directed ‘code’ — the settlement of disputes without the threat of use of force, no ‘unilateral attempt to change the status quo’ and a regional order free from all forms of coercion. Quad members also advocated the ‘Free and Open’ Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy.
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Our sincere thanks to the East Asian Forum for providing this article.
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