importance of both Quad and BRICS

 importance of both Quad and BRICS

with India being the only country common to both Quad and BRICS and a founding member of both, it cannot afford to downplay / नीचा दिखाना one for the other

Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Japan end-July

What is QUAD?

QUAD, also known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or simply the Quad, is a strategic forum comprising four countries: the United States, Japan, India, and Australia. 

• The Quad is aimed at promoting regional security and economic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. 
• The four countries share a common interest in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, promoting democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, and countering China's expanding influence in the region. 
• The Quad has held several meetings at the ministerial and leaders' level to discuss issues such as maritime security, infrastructure development, and supply chain resilience. 
• The Quad is seen as a mechanism for balancing China's influence in the region, although its members have stressed that it is not a military alliance and is open to other countries who share their values and interests.

What is the genesis and evolution of QUAD?

• 2007: The Quad was initially formed in 2007 during an informal meeting of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who first proposed the idea of creating the Quad.
• 2012: The Japanese Prime Minister highlighted the concept of the 'Democratic Security Diamond' in Asia, which includes the US, Japan, India, and Australia.
• 2017: Once again confronted with the growing danger posed by China, the four nations revitalized the Quad by expanding its goals and devising a system that aimed to gradually establish an international order based on rules.
  • India, Japan, USA, and Australia held the first 'Quad' talks in Manila ahead of the ASEAN Summit 2017.
• 2020: The trilateral India-US-Japan Malabar naval exercises expanded to include Australia, marking the first official grouping of the Quad since its resurgence in 2017 and the first joint military exercises among the four countries in over a decade.
• 2021: The Quad leaders met virtually and later released a joint statement titled ‘The Spirit of the Quad’.

after a long gap of 10 months, comes at a time when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is paralysed and its reform nowhere in sight,

international law is violated with impunity both in the 

• Ukraine war and in the assault on Gaza by Israel, 
• 
  
• an axis of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran is gaining traction, 
• 
  
• and Chinese influence is growing not just in the Indo-Pacific, but elsewhere too.

The U.S. realised 

that it needs not just allies, but also credible partners in its security architecture, including in the Indo-Pacific, 

and reached “across the aisle” to “non-ally” countries like India to partner with them in smaller pluri-lateral groupings and joint security initiatives. 

ASEAN countries are getting increasingly vulnerable

 as South China Sea remaining a flashpoint.

membership is both good and bad for india 

1 India's  engagement in Quad and with BRICS present the country with interesting, and sometimes contrasting, dilemmas.

2 India has enthusiastically embraced / support  Quad and its strategic objectives. 

3 maritime security in the Indo-Pacific 

India, during its presidency of the UNSC in August 2021, held a high-level virtual event on ‘Enhancing Maritime Security’, 

presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others, indicates the importance India attaches to strengthening maritime security in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

India’s role in the Quad

 India’s vision goes beyond for QUAD  

While Quad has always had a geopolitical security objective vis-à-vis China, India’s vision goes beyond this narrow thrust to a much broader 

redrawing of the security and techno-economic architecture of the Indo-Pacific region. 

Quad and its objective  

• global supply chains -of critical technologies 

• and on a range of areas of direct strategic relevance to the region,
• 
  
•  including digital, telecom, health, power, and semi-conductors
• 
  
•  it has underlined that development too has a security perspective which cannot be ignored. 
• 
  
• India, in its turn, has benefited through enhanced bilateral relations with Quad partners, especially the U.S.

formation of AUKUS  

 formation of AUKUS with the U.S., Australia, and the U.K., with a view to 

• enhance their military capabilities,
• 
  
•  especially Australia’s with nuclear submarines, 
• 
  
• has put securitisation of the Indo-Pacific region and deterrence of China at the centre. 

The Ukraine war and enhanced focus on NATO 

has made US / west to look at Asia too through a military lens.

 AUKUS भारत के भू-रणनीतिक हितों के अनुकूल हो सकता है, लेकिन क्वाड के लिए विशुद्ध रूप से सुरक्षा दृष्टिकोण को अपनाने में भारत की अनिच्छा को निराशा के रूप में देखा जा रहा है, इसके बावजूद कि भारतीय विदेश मंत्री ने स्पष्ट किया है कि क्वाड एक एशियाई नाटो नहीं है और भारत अन्य तीन के विपरीत संधि सहयोगी नहीं है। 

India’s independent policy of close relations with Russia

and calling for a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war, both of which are frowned upon by the West, do not distract / remove  India from strengthening the Quad.

 engagement with China

Some Quad members and European countries are themselves enhancing their bilateral engagement with China, underlining their differing bilateral and regional compulsions.

india in BRICS and QUAD 

1 Against the backdrop of India’s enthusiastic engagement with Quad, its engagement with BRICS presents a different conundrum. India was an enthusiastic founder of BRICS. 

2 In fact, at the 10th annual summit of the BRICS in 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa, it was Mr. Modi who reminded the leaders that BRICS was founded to 

• reform the multilateral system and 
• 
  
• proposed for the first time his vision of “reformed multilateralism.” 

3 While BRICS’ initiatives 

such as 

• New Development Bank and the 
• 
  
• Contingent Reserve Arrangement have been pioneering,
• 
  
•  the attempt by China to use BRICS to grandstand and push its world view on the Global South and now, to push back the West has made India wary of giving BRICS a higher profile.

The potential of BRICS

India had, consequently, been reluctant to expand BRICS. 

1 In fact, in 2018, Mr. Putin too underlined his reluctance to expand BRICS by quoting former South African President Nelson Mandela: “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”

 2 But after Quad and the situation in Ukraine, Russia too realised the potential of BRICS, which includes pushing back the West, and lined up behind China. The change of guard in Brazil leaves India as the lone member to push back China. 

3 A reluctant India decided to accept BRICS’s expansion than oppose it and now many more countries are reportedly waiting to join. 

To counter moves to take BRICS in a direction India does not like, we need to be more engaged, not less. With India being the only country common to both Quad and BRICS, the country cannot afford to downplay one for the other.

source the hindu