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1 1 (January 30, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/goveklp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Servic Infrmring the legislitive debate since 1914 0 Updated January 30, 2023 The Quad: Cooperation Among the United States, Japan, India, and Australia OvervI ew The Biden Administration has boosted the profile of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, aka the Quad, as a centerpiece of its Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at strengthening the United States' commitment to the region. The four-country coalition, comprised of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia, claims a common platform of standing for a rules-based order, protecting freedom of navigation, and promoting democratic values in the region. The leaders have held three summits, with plans for a fourth in Sydney in 2023. The activities of the Quad may be of interest to Congress given its oversight responsibilities, attention to security alliances, and concern about China's power and influence in the region. Since President Biden took office, the Quad has focused on areas beyond traditional security, but concerns about China's growing influence and military assertiveness appear to undergird the group's motives. Without explicitly referencing China, the most recent (May 2022) joint statement reiterates the Quad's commitment to uphold the international rules-based order where countries are free from all forms of military, economic and political coercion. When the partners first held a series of Quad meetings in 2007, China denounced them as an attempt to encircle it. The effort dissipated amid member leadership transitions, concerns about economic repercussions from China, and attention to other national interests. Revitalization of the group began in 2017 and has accelerated since 2020, bringing similar accusations from Beijing, and crystallizing the geopolitical and economic risks for Quad members. China is among the top three trading partners for all four Quad countries, and each is reliant on China for stable supply chains. Questions remain about how the Quad defines itself and its goals. Critics point to the Quad's inability to speak with one voice on regional issues, the absence of collaborative democracy promotion efforts, a dearth of joint military operations, and a lack of institutional structure as limits on its effectiveness. Does it compete with or complement other regional groupings? Will it remain limited to the four founders or open its membership to others? Is it durable in the face of leadership changes in member countries? Can it be effective without a strong economic pillar to counter China's dominance in regional trade arrangements? In many observers' view, India's participation in the group is particularly precarious given its traditional reluctance to join regional or ideological blocs. Quad Actities A September 2021 Quad Leaders' Summit produced a statement outlining four broad areas of cooperation: vaccine production and distribution; climate change mitigation efforts and clean energy development; the promotion of transparency and high-standard governance in the field of critical and emerging technologies; and the development of a regional infrastructure partnership. With several other mechanisms available to distribute vaccine doses, the Quad has re-oriented itself to other priorities. Climate change mitigation remains a focus, with the four countries announcing a Quad Climate Change and Mitigation Package (Q-CHAMP) to address mitigation and resilience in the Indo-Pacific region. One area of cooperation is green shipping and clean energy supply chains. Although the Quad has working groups on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) and infrastructure, no specific efforts have been announced. At the May 2022 summit, the leaders announced the establishment of a new Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, with an emphasis on tracking vessels involved in illegal fishing. Some advocates point to this initiative as a strong example of how the Quad can deliver public goods to the region, particularly if the program expanded to include training of regional forces to enhance enforcement. Further global health cooperation, building on the initial effort to distribute vaccine doses, could also burnish the reputation of the Quad among Indo- Pacific countries. Growing Securty Cooperation Although the Quad has emphasized non-security areas in joint statements, military cooperation has expanded among the four countries. Annual Malabar joint naval exercises, originally bilateral between the United States and India, later added Japan as a permanent member in 2015, and since 2020 have included Australia. U.S. Defense officials say Malabar could be a potent war-fighting exercise that deepens trust and interoperability among the four militaries in the air and sea domains. All four militaries operate compatible anti-submarine warfare systems, making this a particularly promising area of cooperation. In addition to Malabar, Quad countries are increasing bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral exercises with one another that may accelerate the building of integrated capabilities. Examples of these exercises include the India- Australia biennial AUSINDEX naval exercise, the Japan- India JIMEX exercise in the North Arabian Sea, and the large multilateral biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maritime exercise, which includes all four countries. In 2023, Japan and India held their first-ever joint fighter air drills. As U.S. treaty allies, Australia and Japan regularly hold large-scale exercises with the U.S. military.

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