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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for the US tour for the 9th time in his 10-year tenure. He will participate in the Quad Summit meeting being held at the residence of US President Joe Biden this evening.
The same Quad Summit which was to be held in India this year, but on America’s request, the opportunity to host it was given to Biden.
What is so special about QUAD that Biden made his private home its venue, how did this organization increase the importance of India for America in 10 years from 2007 to 2017… the story of India-US relations through QUAD
57 feet high waves, 2 lakh people died and Quad was formed in 2007 QUAD was formed in 2007, but the story of its formation begins in 2004. The tsunami that struck on 26 December 2004 killed more than 2 lakh people in 14 countries including Japan, Indonesia and India. In this devastation that took place the morning after Christmas, 57 feet high sea waves rose in the Indo-Pacific.
According to foreign affairs expert Harsh V Pant, India, Australia, America and Japan formed a core group to help the countries affected by the tsunami. This group worked together till 2005. This cooperation was successful.
Indonesia was the most affected by the tsunami. More than 1.5 lakh people were killed here.
Then on 15 December 2006, the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who visited Japan, said in a joint statement of both the countries that we wish to work with like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region. After this statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speculations about the formation of QUAD started.
In August 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited India. During this time, while addressing the Indian Parliament, he talked about the ‘confluence of two oceans (Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean). This speech of Shinzo Abe further strengthened the foundation of QUAD.
In May 2007, a summit of ASEAN countries was being held in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Leaders and representatives of many other countries had also come to attend it. These leaders did take part in the ASEAN summit. But apart from this, some of these countries also called a separate meeting.
The countries that called these separate meetings were India, America, Japan and Australia.
Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was participating in this meeting from India’s side. The biggest face of this meeting was former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Apart from this, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and US Deputy Foreign Minister John Negroponte were also present in the meeting. This meeting held in 2007 was known as the primary (first) meeting of the QUAD countries.
Quad was formed this year but before its objectives could be decided, America put it on hold to increase its friendship with China.
During his US visit in March 2008, the then Australian Prime Minister held a full day meeting with President George Bush. During this time, no official of the US delegation even mentioned the name of QUAD.
This made it clear that America is not particularly interested in QUAD.
US-Australia sidelined Quad for China, a matter of 2009 The annual Malabar naval exercise between India and the US began in 1992. When the initiative for QUAD was underway in 2007, Japan also participated in this exercise in April of the same year.
After the meeting of QUAD countries in May, Malabar exercise was organised once again in September, this time apart from India, America, Japan, Singapore also participated in it.
The navies of the four countries conducted exercises in the Bay of Bengal from 4 to 9 September. During that time, China had opposed both these Malabar exercises.
On the other hand, due to internal politics in Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had to resign from his post in 2007 itself. QUAD suffered a setback due to Shinzo Abe’s resignation from the post of Prime Minister.
Shinzo Abe is called the Godfather of QUAD.
On the other hand, there was a change of power in Australia as well. On 3 December 2007 a new government was formed in Australia under the leadership of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
According to the Times of India, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who visited China in February 2008, assured the Chinese Foreign Minister and announced Australia’s withdrawal from the Quad.
Australia did not participate in the Malabar exercise in 2008 due to China’s opposition. The new Australian government also reversed the decision to sell uranium to India.
America also did not want to anger China. America was trying to appease countries like North Korea and Iran through China.
In 2005, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Jolin visited China. Here he asked China to use its influence to bring North Korea, Iran and Sudan into the international system.
It was China that brought North Korea to the negotiating table after its first nuclear test in October 2006.
On 17 December 2006, top diplomats from six countries, including North Korea, China and the United States, met in Beijing to discuss ending North Korea’s nuclear program.
Apart from this, in 2007, America started importing the most from China. Due to availability of cheap labour, American companies had established themselves in China.
They were getting huge profits from this. In 2008, China became the country taking the highest loan (600 billion dollars) from America. It had even left Japan behind.
Meanwhile, in 2009, there was a change of power in America. Obama became the President. He considered it necessary to keep China happy in order to deal with Iran and North Korea.
For this, there was talk of forming G2 i.e. Group of 2. Obama and the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were greatly impressed by the idea of G2. However, it never came into effect. Despite this, the Obama administration insisted on improving relations with China and sidelined the Quad.
America was nervous about Xi Jinping’s rule in 2013 The journey of QUAD, which ended in 2007, remained stalled for many years. The main reason for nothing being concrete in the first phase of QUAD was China, which neither America, Australia nor India wanted to upset. At the same time, China also became the reason for its re-formation. But this time the story was different from before.
Xi Jinping became the President of China in March 2013. Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project on 7 September 2013. Through this ambitious project, China wanted to increase its connectivity to Europe, South Asia and the Middle East on the lines of the old Silk Trade Route. This was a part of China’s aggressive nationalist policy, which it adopted after the economic crisis of 2008.
On the other hand, China started building artificial islands to strengthen its claims in the South China Sea. According to media reports, China has also built military bases and airstrips on the Paracel and Spratly Islands in South China in recent years.
China has also built around 27 outposts here.
These expansionist activities of China have created a challenge for the countries from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. According to the Economic Times, China started preparing the army afresh in 2015. Under this, China also increased the capabilities of the Navy.
These steps by China directly challenged America. On the other hand, America’s trade deficit with China was also increasing, due to which a trade war started between the two countries from 2018.
The dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands, which had been going on since 1971, escalated to such an extent in 2012 that the armies of the two countries came face to face. This move by China acted as an alarm bell for Japan.
China’s BRI also raised concerns in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and tried to improve relations with China despite the BRI. He visited China 5 times during his first term.
2017 came, America revived the Quad after 10 years, recognized the importance of India Despite Modi’s efforts to improve relations with China, China tried to intrude in Doklam in 2017. Apart from this, China also vetoed India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in 2018. India was seeking China’s support for membership in this group, for which it had applied in 2016.
On the other hand, Australia’s relations with China were also deteriorating. A free trade agreement was signed between the two countries in November 2014. Which was considered to be the result of good relations between the two countries.
In early 2015, the Australian government leased its Darwin port to a Chinese company for 99 years.
This decision of Australia shocked America.
“Next time you do something like this, tell us first,” US President Barack Obama told the Australian prime minister on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Philippines in November 2015. The US had been using Darwin port to stage military operations there every year.
In 2017, Australia banned donations from foreign countries to reduce growing Chinese influence in the country’s politics.
August 2018 Australia banned Chinese company Huawei from purchasing technology equipment for 5G broadband networks, citing security reasons.
Thus, in the 2010s, the relations of all the members of QUAD 1.o with China were badly affected. This forced these countries to think about coming together once again.
‘Making of QUAD 2.0 under Trump’s rule The formation of QUAD 2.0 had to wait for almost a decade. China’s growing influence and its deteriorating relations with QUAD members worked to prepare the ground for QUAD 2.0.
In 2017, during the ASEAN countries meeting in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, the leaders of the QUAD countries held a meeting. This meeting was attended by Indian Prime Minister Modi, US President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The picture is from the night before the meeting of the leaders of the QUAD countries. Then all the leaders had gathered for dinner.
In this meeting, the four leaders agreed to restart the QUAD once again. After this agreement, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries was held in September 2019.
After this meeting, it was believed that the first official meeting of the leaders of QUAD countries would take place in 2020.
But, due to COVID, the first official meeting between the top leaders of the QUAD countries took place in March 2021. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison participated in this meeting.
In this way, after efforts lasting for about a decade and a half, the journey of formation of QUAD was completed. In 10 years, America strengthened its relations with India to compete with China. It was during Trump’s administration that America named the area extending from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean as Indo-Pacific. Whereas before this America used to call this area Asia-Pacific.
America wants to stop China’s expansion at all costs, for this India’s support is necessary. This is the reason why his opponent Biden also focused equally on the Quad which was revived during Trump’s time.
