THE QUAD AND BEYOND

Given the potentials as well as the contradictions within the QUAD, India has to maximise its options in order to participate successfully in the great game that is emerging in the Indo-Pacific, writes NINAD D SHETH

- NINAD D SHETH

Free and open Indo-Pacific are simple and beautiful objectives of a nascent on-again off-again grouping which includes the QUAD (India USA Australia and Japan) and for India’s strategy subsets such as France and the Indian Ocean islands weaved into a military diplomatic bandwidth of influence.

The idea of the QUAD is gathering momentum. The combination is dictated by the concept of Maritime and naval interoperatibility with the QUAD navies working together to leverage their respective formidable capabilities as one force. Indeed, while China is on course to overtake the USA in the number of ships that can be put to sea and submarines that can lurk underwater taking on the four navies together will be an altogether different strategic challenge.

This is because having ships and operating them far from shores are very different things. The operational readiness, tactical employment and underlying strategic parameters need constant drilling from which over time a doctrine of the QUAD can be derived. China has for example struggled with the operational aspects of its aircraft carrier something India has been putting to sea and indeed has tested at war since the 1960’s.

The grand design in the distant future for the QUAD may be to attempt bottling up China within the South China Sea and frustrating Chinese oil supply choke points in the Persian Gulf and the Malacca straits. Finally, there is also the added strain on Chinese resources that QUAD could bring stretching Chinese supply lines and PLA resource allocation choices.

These objectives are to be proactive and its concepts need to be seen drilled in the annual MALABAR naval exercise that India undertakes, along with the United States. The grand maritime exercise underlines both the scope and limitations of the QUAD. It was in 1992 – a long time ago – when the exercise started between India and the United States, it was only in 2015 that India invited Japan.