US-India relations - Quad's IPMDA - US-Japan Alliance
US, Quad to Bolster Maritime Awareness Initiative
According to a US official, the US helped deliver more than $475 million in maritime awareness initiatives to “help Southeast Asian nations counter Beijing’s growing presence in the South China Sea.” These initiatives include the Quad’s Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) and the Maritime Security Initiative (MSI), a US initiative that enhances maritime awareness of Southeast Asian partners.
US Assistant Defense Secretary Ely Ratner said that the US prioritised Southeast Asian partners “by diversifying the maritime platforms and systems that have to respond within their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs)”.
The IPMDA was launched at the 2022 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo and is a technology and training initiative to enhance maritime domain awareness and harness innovative technology, such as commercial satellite radio frequency data collection, across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean Region, and the Pacific, with near real-time information on activities in their maritime zones. It particularly aims to track “dark shipping” and build a “faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities”.
Indian Naval Admiral also commented earlier this year that the “initiative sought to…[ensure] the safety of critical sea lines of communication and promoting cooperation among like-minded nations in the region”.
US Defence Secretary Says New Chapter in US-India Relations
Speaking to the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing this week, the United States (US) Defence Secretary said that the US “by bolstering the Indian military’s capabilities, we can work together to upload a more stable balance of power across the wider Indo-Pacific.” Austin was speaking in the context of a discussion on the Department of Defense's annual budget.
He also said that the two militaries were “...accelerating joint exercises, information-sharing and other operational activities to boost maritime security in the Indian Ocean”, adding that the US was committed to ensuring that the “...growing US-India partnership supports the efforts of our broader network of allies and partners, especially the [Quad]...”.
In this vein, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatara met high-level US representatives this week to discuss growing defence and commercial ties, as well as supply chain resilience.
In a separate congressional hearing, the Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), also said that a strong US-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership “...[was] essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” He added that USINDOPACOM sought to deepen cooperation under the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) to enable more regular and flexible engagements in the Indian Ocean, including “US ship repair in Indian shipyards.”
In the context of the formal agenda of the Quad, military-to-military has evaded attention, given emphasis by the Quad members that the quartet is exclusively focused on providing public goods to the Indo-Pacific, and is not concerned with traditional security aspects. However, at the informal level, the quadrilateral possesses signs of a steady expansion in security ties. India’s security ties with its Quad partners have all ramped up, especially along the defence dimension. More recently, the US alliance system has received attention in the context of increasing US-Japan relations.
The recent meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Biden involved a plan to modernise the nations’ military commands and control structures, leading Biden to it the “most significant” upgrade to the alliance.
Biden also confirmed that the mutual defence treaty included nuclear capabilities and applied to the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. He also said that the US, Japan, and Australia would create an “air, missile and defence architecture” for the first time.
What we’re reading this week
An opinion piece that argues for how the Quad should focus on improving pharmaceutical manufacturing in the region through technology transfer and collaboration, and help bolster pharma manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia and create an alternative supply base in the Indo-Pacific region. See here.
And another report by the Atlantic Council on how the Quad can bolster cooperation with the Pacific Island countries. See here.