New Delhi, June 1 (Mayank Nigam) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said today that the objective of the Quad is to do global good, as PM Modi has emphasised, through collaborative efforts, and stressed that if the grouping of the four nations is to continue growing there should be no effort to strait jacket it or “impose congruence over convergence”. His remarks, delivered at the 2022 edition of the Vice Admiral KK Nayyar Memorial Lecture, are significant as they come days after India, along with 12 other nations joined the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. The IPEF is based on four pillars of – trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption. Members can choose which pillar to join, but if they join the trade pillar they would have to join all the other three pillars too.
The US is keen for India to join the trade pillar, though India has so far not joined any of the two other mega trade frameworks – the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), or the China-led mega trade grouping Regional and Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The US has said the IPEF, which is seen as a means to counter China in the region, is not a free trade agreement, and has not outlined any market access or tariff reductions. However, the IPEF could pave the way for future trade deals. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on the aspect of enforcement, the US is “pushing the envelope, beyond the traditional dispute settlement, to thinking about mechanisms for verifying that the rules are being followed.” In his remarks, the EAM said today: “The current Quad is a cumulative product of several developments, among them the changed capabilities of key players, a more integrated arena, an emerging vacuum on global issues and a greater openness to look beyond orthodox constructs.
“At the end of the day, the compulsions of inter-dependence and inter-penetration have triumphed over outdated definitions and vested interests. Let us be clear: the Indo-Pacific is the future, not the past. “At heart of Quad is a level of comfort generated by marked improvement for India in multiple sets of bilateral relationships. This is enhanced by a stronger sense of converging purpose in the face of regional and global challenges. “Charges that the Indo-Pacific derives from Cold War thinking are motivated and false. They are made by the very quarters who seek to freeze the status quo of 1945. And deny the integration that has happened in the last two decades.” “Their endeavour is to constrain the choices of others and impose their own interests. “The objective of the Quad, in words of PM Narendra Modi is to do global good. The need for that to be a collaborative effort is self-evident. “It is equally natural that nations with significant capacity and shared interest should step forward in response to the needs of the day. “That India should be one of them makes sense given how much we have grown in the last three decades.
“But for this to happen through the partnership of three quad countries was not always a given. “This can unfold today because painstaking efforts were made over many years to strengthen the bilateral relationships that are the real building blocks “But even that by itself was not adequate. It took considerable openness of mind in all the Quad leaderships to envisage collaboration in a more contemporary manner “Practical progress has validated the relevance of this sensible approach. “If Quad is to continue growing, and I have every confidence it would, we must also be cognizant of what we should not do. Trying to strait-jacket it, subjecting it to stress tests or imposing congruence over convergence are all harmful, not helpful.” “The Quad works precisely because it is flexible and understanding, a welcome departure from the rigidities of the Cold War era. “The quad is in many ways the aggregate of the progress India has made in the key relationships over two decades. “It is also an assertion of going beyond traditional confines and defeating the mind games of our competitors. “That it has opened up new vistas should encourage us to be confident and ensure that our national interest, and our national interest alone, continues to determine policy making.”