Quod erat Faciendum: that which was to be done (is done). It has been done by the Quad of four democracies (India, Australia, Japan and the US), at a high-profile and seamless summit, September 24, in Washington DC. I have to fess up to not expecting this degree of seamlessness; but, occasionally, life, and diplomacy, tend to throw pleasant surprises at you. A welcome change signalling hope, and collective democratic and strategic strength, in our fragmented, pandemic-ridden, untrustworthy and terror-infested times.
Singled out for significant cooperation are Quad partnerships in: cybersecurity (at the topmost levels of national leadership), green shipping networks, clean hydrogen, climate and infrastructure, the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, an initiative to set up a baseline preparedness for future pandemics, the dissemination of 5G, Quad technologies, and the creation of a 100 Quad STEM fellowships. There was no explicit articulation of defence collaboration, but partnerships in defence are visible, potent and long extant—witness, for example, the MALABAR exercises, coupled with several meetings between ranking defence chiefs. Top-level meetings will continue until the next summit, contributing to a greater formalisation of the Quad.
This augurs rather well for India, which finds itself vulnerable after August 15, given the in-your-face contagion of terrorism perpetrated by Pakistan, the Taliban, ISIS-K, Al Qaeda and other bellicose terrorist groups in its neighbourhood, now all cranked up anew, and ready to blast away.
In this regard, the joint statement that the White House released acquires significance. An important excerpt reads: “We reaffirm that Afghan territory should not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or to finance terrorist acts, and reiterate the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan. We denounce the use of terrorist proxies and emphasized the importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to terrorist groups which could be used to launch or plan terror attacks, including cross-border attacks. We stand together in support of Afghan nationals, and call on the Taliban to ensure that . . . the human rights of all Afghans, including women, children and minorities are represented.”
World leaders can only make a request, but the Taliban continues with its gory executions and annihilation each day, even as its council of ministers puts out innumerable messages about how “progressive” it is. Afghan women and girls bear the brunt of this assault on fundamental rights, and have been tragically thrust back into the dark ages.
Back to the Quad, I am particularly delighted with the announcement of 100 STEM scholarships in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for graduate students from all four partner countries, under the leadership of Schmidt Ventures, a philanthropic initiative, with remarkably generous support from Accenture, Blackstone, Boeing, Google, MasterCard and Western Digital. This initiative will prepare the next generation of STEM talent to lead the Quad and similar partnerships in the future.
Where does this leave China? Entirely out of its depth. The C-word did not find a single articulation at the summit, but the Common Threat is a truculent and unpredictable China; and the Quad is now well set up to counter its inevitable machinations, manoeuvres and manipulation. China has picked up on this and is acutely aware of the Quad being a “consequential threat” to its hegemony, as former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd mentioned. What I also detect here is a robust and timely safety net and crucial backup for India, against both Chinese and Pakistani-jihad aggression.
And where does this leave Pakistan? Not in a felicitous place. Imran Khan’s address at the UN General Assembly was one where he successfully evicted every scintilla of coherence or sanity, brimming over as it was with Pakistan’s bugbearish obsession with India, and India’s lauded and substantive achievement in, and contribution to, the global knowledge economy.
It must gall Pakistan that the CEOs of many of the aforementioned industry supporters of the Quad STEM fellowships—as well as of other major companies in the US—are of Indian origin, and often themselves outstanding examples of the rich and permanent harvest a fine STEM education can generate. The alternative Pakistan proffers is jihad and its Wehrmacht, destabilisation in the subcontinent, and the bankrolling of a decimation of Afghanistan and its beautiful, ancient civilisation.
In this context, the militant, predictable howls and irrelevant, trite commentary from a certain enclave of the Indian media are risible. It is focused on whether President Biden rejected a hug from Prime Minister Modi (he did not: no hug was in the offing); whether Vice President Kamala Harris schooled Modi on democracy (she was reading off a well-known script, which only the obsessive and woke media reads non-existent meanings into); and, finally, on why it took Harris as long as it did to tweet about her meeting with Modi (they would have been elated if she didn’t). World leaders have impossibly packed itineraries, and I don’t believe Twitter was at the forefront of Harris’s mind during this crucial summit. Harris is also known to be a laid-back tweeter, having tweeted about an African leader’s visit a full two days after the event.
The media alluding to the US “nudging India” about human rights and democracy per its parsing of the joint communique is, yet again, a figment of its imagination. The emphasis was on the strengthening of our respective democracies. The US doesn’t exactly have a sterling historical record on race relations. That old media gambit didn’t work during Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to India; and it absolutely does not, now. The media needs to give it a rest. The Americans are intelligent enough to construe their own shortcomings, and would, in their wisdom, hesitate to alienate a major and indispensable democratic ally such as India.
Oopalee Operajita
Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University
(The author advises world leaders on public policy, communication and international affairs)