US in the IOR - House of Rep passes 'Strengthening the Quad' Bill
Donald Lu on the US, India in the IOR
At a recent public event, Donald Lu, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said to authorities in the Maldives in their meetings previously that “China [would] be a good partner to the [Maldives] only if Beijing knew and faced “real competition from others”. Lu mentioned that the Maldives faced serious challenges, including debt, and what it needed was “sustainable, profitable, private sector-led investment”.
He also referred to the Quad’s Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative in the region, including South Asia, which is going to be “transformative and will help countries defend…against drug trafficking and illegal fishing”.
Lu commented on working with India and how India-US partnership can extend to cooperating with littoral states of Africa that border the Indian Ocean and that India was a much “bigger force” in the region.
US House of Rep Passes “Strengthening the Quad” Bill
The US House of Representatives passed the “Strengthening the Quad” Act on Thursday. The legislation seeks to intensify cooperation between India, the US, Japan, and Australia in the Indo-Pacific and calls for forming a Quad Intra-Parliamentary Working Group with representatives from the Quad countries. A “United States Group” will represent the US in the Working Group, comprising of a maximum of 24 members of Congress.
The working group is mandated to submit an annual report to the congressional foreign affairs committees, and provide transparency and accountability regarding the group’s activities and outcomes. It also calls for the US Secretary of State to submit, within 180 days, a “status update on Quad’s activities and a strategy for bolstering cooperation” to Congress.
As Prashant Jha writes, the passage of the legislation indicates the bipartisan support that the Quad continues to enjoy; 379 House Representatives voted for the legislation, and only 39 members opposed it.
Among the several guidelines that Congress provided regarding expectations from the Quad, one is knowing “diplomatic and bureaucratic barriers and obstacles to implementing and expanding existing streams of Quad cooperation and how the legislature can help address these obstacles, provide new authority, and offer resources”.
What we’re reading this week
Bolstering cooperation between the Quad and the Pacific Island countries: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/bolstering-cooperation-among-quad-and-pacific-islands-countries/
An interview by the High Commissioner of Australia to India on the India-Australia relationship:
Blinken, Jaishankar talk Indo-US ties at the Munich Security Conference:
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/in-munich-jaishankar-blinken-talk-on-progress-in-indo-us-strategic-ties-12296361.html