Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for America for the 9th time in his 10-year tenure. He will participate in the Quad Summit meeting organized at the residence of US President Joe Biden this evening.
The same Quad Summit that was supposed to be held in India this year, but at the request of America, Biden was given the opportunity to host it.
What's so special about QUAD is that Biden made it his personal home, how the organization increased India's importance to America in the 10 years from 2007 to 2017… The story of India-US relations by QUAD
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57 feet high waves, 2 lakh deaths and a quad in 2007 QUAD was formed in 2007, but its creation story begins in 2004. The 26 December 2004 tsunami killed more than 2 lakh people in 14 countries including Japan, Indonesia and India. The disaster, which occurred on the morning after Christmas, caused waves as high as 57 feet in the Indo-Pacific.
According to foreign affairs expert Harsh V Pant, India, Australia, the US and Japan formed a core group to help the tsunami-affected countries. The group worked together till 2005. This cooperation was successful.
Indonesia was the worst affected by the tsunami. More than 1.5 lakh people died here.
Then the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who visited Japan on December 15, 2006, said in a joint statement between the two countries, “We want to work with like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region.” After this statement, speculation started about the formation of QUAD.
In August 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited India. While addressing the Indian Parliament, he spoke of the 'confluence of two oceans (Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean)'. This speech further strengthened the foundation of QUAD.
In May 2007, the ASEAN Summit was being held in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Leaders and representatives of many other countries also came to participate in it. These leaders participated in the ASEAN Summit. But apart from this, some of these countries also called a meeting separately. The separate meeting planners included representatives from India, Japan, Australia and the US.
The meeting held in 2007 was known as the primary (first) meeting of the QUAD countries. The Quad was formed this year, but before its objectives were set, the US put it back on the back burner to bolster its friendship with China.
The then Australian Prime Minister held an all-day meeting with President George W. Bush during his visit to the US in March 2008. During this period no official in the American delegation even mentioned the Quad.
George Bush with then Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.
US-Australia Sidelines Quad for China, 2009 Talk In 1992, Malabar exercise started between India and America. In 2007, when the initiative for QUAD was underway, Japan also participated in this exercise held in April of the same year.
After the meeting of the QUAD countries in May, the Malabar exercise was organized once again in September, this time in addition to India, USA, Japan, Singapore also participated in it. China opposed the exercise.
On the other hand, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had to resign in 2007 due to internal politics in Japan. QUAD suffered a setback due to the resignation of Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister.
Shinzo Abe is called the Godfather of Quad.
There was also a change of power in Australia. On 3 December 2007, a new government was formed in Australia under the leadership of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith visited China in February 2008, announcing Australia's withdrawal from the Quad.
Australia also did not participate in the Malabar exercise in 2008 due to Chinese opposition. At the same time, the new Australian government also reversed its decision to sell uranium to India.
America also did not want to anger China. In 2005, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Jolin visited China. Here he asked China to use its influence to bring North Korea, Iran and Sudan into the international order.
It was China that brought North Korea to the negotiating table after North Korea's first nuclear test in October 2006.
Apart from this, in 2007, America started importing the most from China. American companies established themselves in China due to the availability of cheap labor. It benefited him a lot. In 2008, China became the country that borrowed the most from the US ($600 billion). It even surpassed Japan.
Meanwhile in 2009, there was a change of power in America. Obama became president. He considered it necessary to convince China to deal with Iran and North Korea.
For this there was talk of making G2 i.e. Group of 2. Obama and then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were very impressed with the idea of G2. However this was never implemented. Despite this, the Obama administration insisted on improving relations with China and sidelined Quad.
In 2013, the United States panicked because of Xi Jinping's rise to power The QUAD Yatra, which was discontinued in 2007, was stalled for several years. The main reason why nothing concrete was achieved in the first phase of QUAD was China, which neither America, Australia nor India wanted to anger. At the same time, China also caused its reconstruction. But, this time the story was different.
Xi Jinping became the President of China in March 2013. Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project on 7 September 2013. Through this ambitious project, China wants to increase its connectivity with Europe, South Asia and the Middle East along the lines of the old Silk Trade Route.
This was part of China's aggressive nationalistic policy that it adopted after the 2008 economic crisis. On the other hand, China has started building artificial islands to strengthen its claim in the South China Sea.
Around 27 Chinese outposts have also been established here.
These expansionist moves by China have created challenges for countries across the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. According to the Economic Times, China began to revamp its army in 2015. Under this, China has also increased its naval capacity.
China's BRI has also raised India's concerns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and tried to improve relations with China despite the BRI. He went to China 5 times in his first tenure.
Come 2017, America revived the Quad after 10 years, recognizing India's importance Despite Modi's efforts to improve relations with China, in 2017 China tried to infiltrate Doklam. Apart from this, China also vetoed India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in 2018. India had been seeking China's support for membership of the group, for which it had applied in 2016.
On the other hand, Australia's relations with China were also deteriorating. A free trade agreement was signed between the two countries in November 2014. In early 2015, the Australian government leased its Darwin port to a Chinese company for 99 years.
On this, US President Barack Obama told the Australian Prime Minister, “Next time you do something like this, tell us first.” In fact, the US used Darwin port for its military operations every year.
In 2017, Australia banned foreign donations to curb China's growing influence in the country's politics. In August 2018, Australia banned Chinese company Huawei from buying technology equipment for 5G broadband networks, citing security reasons.
Thus, the relations of all QUAD members with China were adversely affected in the 2010s. This forced these countries to think about coming together once again.
This decision of Australia shocked America.
Building QUAD 2.0 under Trump The creation of the QUAD 2.0 had to wait for almost a decade. China's growing influence and its deteriorating relations with QUAD members laid the groundwork for QUAD 2.0.
During the 2017 ASEAN Summit held in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, the leaders of the QUAD countries held a meeting. Indian Prime Minister Modi, US President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull participated in this meeting.
The picture is from the night before the meeting of the leaders of the QUAD countries. Then all the leaders gathered for dinner.
In this meeting, the four leaders agreed to start QUAD once again. After this, a meeting of foreign ministers of four countries was held in September 2019. After this meeting, it was believed that the first official meeting of the leaders of the QUAD countries would take place in 2020.
But, due to covid, this meeting had to be held virtually. In March 2021, an official meeting was held between the top leaders of the QUAD countries for the first time. Thus the journey of forming the Quad was completed after nearly a decade and a half of efforts.
In 10 years America strengthened ties with India to compete with China. It was during Trump's administration that America gave the name Indo-Pacific to the area from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. While earlier America used to call this area Asia-Pacific.
America wants to stop China's expansion at any cost, India's support is necessary for this. That's why his rival Biden similarly focused on the revitalized Quad under Trump.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
