An auspicious start to Quad
Hindustan TimesThe second in-person summit of Quad leaders on May 24 couldn’t have asked for a better opening act. In their summit on Tuesday, the leaders of Australia, Japan, India and the US, will seek to focus on convergences in crucial areas such as critical technologies, climate action, trade, sustainable infrastructure and post-pandemic recovery at their summit in Tokyo on Tuesday, against the backdrop of differences between the four members States on the Ukraine crisis and the resultant challenge of ensuring food security. The second in-person Quad summit comes at a time when a signature initiative of Quad – the grouping’s vaccine partnership – has run aground with little hope of getting out a billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines across the Indo-Pacific by the end of 2022, mainly due to regulatory issues. However, Quad has not been able to capture the imagination of countries across the Indo-Pacific, especially in terms of offering viable alternatives to China-backed efforts in crucial areas such as infrastructure. This is perhaps the reason why Quad members are seeking to unveil a new maritime initiative at the summit in Tokyo to curb illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific, a phenomenon largely blamed on China’s extensive fishing fleet.