UPSC Current affairs - Operation Blue Star

Quad

Context:

  • Prime Minister participated today at a virtual summit of Quad leaders, along with US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
  • The meeting reviewed the progress on Quad initiatives since the September 2021 Quad Summit. The leaders agreed on accelerating cooperation, with an objective to achieve concrete outcomes by the summit in Japan later this year.

 

About:

  • The Quad, officially the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a group of four countries: the United States, Australia, India, and Japan. Maritime cooperation among them began after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.
  • But today the countries—all democracies and vibrant economies—work on a far broader agenda, which includes tackling security, economic, and health issues.

 

  • Over the years, the Quad’s diplomacy has waxed and waned. It is a loose grouping rather than a formal alliance.

 

  • Japan initially emphasized the democratic identity of the four nations, whereas India seemed more comfortable emphasizing functional cooperation.

 

  • Australian leaders have been reluctant about creating the impression that the group is a formal alliance.

 

What is the status?

 

  • As of now, leaders in all four countries have become more aligned in their shared concerns about China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the region and are more willing to define a constructive agenda of cooperation.
  • All four navies participated in their first joint exercise in over a decade in November 2020.
  • And in March 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden convened a virtual Quad meeting attended by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
  • They formed working groups on COVID-19 vaccines, climate change, and technological innovation and supply-chain resilience.

Source: THE HINDU.