Quad Leaders rolls out major initiatives

By Our Special Correspondent

The Quad leaders launched a new initiative on Tuesday for the Indo-Pacific that allows the partner countries to fully monitor the regional waters and announced over USD 50 billion of infrastructure assistance for the region over the next five years even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the grouping is carrying a constructive agenda and providing new energy to democratic forces.

The rollout of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) and the funding assistance came at the second in-person Quad summit in Tokyo amid rising global concerns over China’s increasingly intimidator behavior in the region.

Modi said the Quad is carrying a constructive agenda for the Indo-Pacific and it will further strengthen the image of the four-nation grouping as a “force for good’.

The leaders of the Quad, comprising India, Australia, the US and Japan, discussed their respective responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the ongoing tragic humanitarian crisis and assessed its implications for the Indo-Pacific in the deliberations.

The four Quad leaders in a joint statement said the IPMDA will support and work in consultation with Indo-Pacific nations and regional information fusion centers in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands by providing technology and training to support shared maritime domain awareness to promote stability and prosperity.

“The IPMDA embodies what the Quad stands for catalyzing our joint efforts towards concrete results that help to make the region more stable and prosperous,” it said.

The 'Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) was established in the Indo-Pacific' that is aimed at further strengthening collaboration to effectively respond to disasters in the region.

It said the new initiative will allow tracking of ‘dark shipping’ and other tactical-level activities, such as rendezvous at sea.

White House fact sheet, will offer a “near-real-time, integrated, and cost-effective” maritime domain awareness picture and it will transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores, and in turn, “uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.”