Addition of BUSINESS in the strategy of QUAD: (GS II, INTERNATIONAL RELATION)

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23 Sep Addition of BUSINESS in the strategy of QUAD: (GS II, INTERNATIONAL RELATION)

Posted at 23 Sep 2021 in Current Affairs, GS Paper II, International relation by
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INTRODUCTION– The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue(QSD) / Quad is a strategic dialogue between the USA, India, Japan and Australia, maintained by talks between member countries.The four nations are vibrant democracies and open economies in which 3 are developed countries and 1 is an emerging market.

CONTEXT- The Quad (Australia, Japan, India and the U.S.) summit took place this week. The agenda for the Quad has widened from just focusing on strengthening strategic and defence pillars to include other aspects too like Business, thus bringing industry into the dialogue process to advance the desired outcomes. 

The Quad leaders stressed the democratic values, while pledging to strengthen cooperation on the “defining challenges” of the times, like  economic and health impacts of COVID­19, cyberspace, critical technologies, and quality infrastructure investment as far as the economic side is concerned. The Working groups were set up for vaccines, critical and emerging technologies, and climate action etc. 

INDIA AND THE QUAD-

For India, all these three partner countries are strategic partners of India. Additionally, bilateral as well as the multilateral initiatives have been taken across multiple areas in different fora with each. 

The grouping of Quad syncs with India’s different regional programmes like the Indo Pacific Oceans’ Initiative and the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative. 

  • India’s total trade with its three Quad partners has crossed over $108 billion in 2020-­21.

  • Regarding the investment side, the U.S. is India’s second largest source of FDI(foreign direct investments), while Japan has a notable footprint in India’s important major infrastructure projects. The Inflows from Australia amount to less than a billion dollars, but with a long term strategy for economic engagement with India.

  • Business partnerships aiming to advance their goals for a free, open and inclusive Indo-­Pacific, all these four Quad Participants  should activate business partnerships with definitive measures to align economic and strategic goals.

  • The first piece of the economic pillar is trade and investment. Establishing alternative manufacturing hubs by the Joint efforts of all Quad partners and making regional supply chains more diversified, is a step to take further and the need of the hour. 

  • The SCRI aims to address vulnerabilities in existing supply chains with India, Australia and Japan which were exposed during the COVID­19 pandemic.

  •  Furthermore, the Quad May add a trade ministers’ interaction to its agenda, engaging in lowering trade barriers and boosting trade linkages among the partner countries plus the Indo-Pacific region.

  •  With India as a natural option for a China­Plus strategy, the domestic policies promoting manufacturing and ease of doing business will help in the long term success of trade cooperation. 

Furthermore-

  • Businesses can help meet the objectives of the Quad. 

  • Quality infrastructure investment is another challenge highlighted. Innovative financing and P-P-P models may enlarge the space for the private sector and support public funds in the endeavour. 

  • The Green Infrastructure Creation must be created into the template. For the same, a working group may look into specific projects for the region that would best feed into trade objectives.

  • As in the vaccine cooperation proposal, the partner countries could focus on various aspects of construction, drawing on their respective strengths. 

  • The third priority area of Quad is climate change, for which a working group has been set up. Cooperation on different dimensions of the climate challenge including finance, emissions reduction, technology and capacity building, is proposed,

 With the mitigation as well as adaptation as key aims, the involvement of industry to support governmental efforts would be critical in this juncture.

TO CONCLUDE-

As a grouping of like minded nations working on shared objectives in the Indo Pacific region, the Quad is a formidable economic force that can deliver many gains on the identified pillars for the participating nations as well as the region. By adding businesses into its strategy mix, its initiatives would be further fortified and expanded. We hope the governments will consider a forum for such private sector engagement. 

BY,

RAJEEV YADAV

FACULTY of HISTORY OPTIONAL and G.S.

PLUTUS IAS

23nd september 2021 current Affairs Download

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