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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Quad Leaders Summit likely to be held in November
The Quad Leaders Summit is expected to be held in November, with the four members of the grouping now focused on giving shape to an agenda to bolster economic security and maritime security, people familiar with the matter said. The Quad Leaders Summit, which will be hosted by India this year, was earlier expected to be held in September but scheduling and logistical issues have resulted in plans to hold the meet later in the year, the people familiar with planning for the meeting said on condition of anonymity. However, dates are yet to be finalised for the summit, they said. Some Quad members believed September wouldn't be ideal for holding the summit because the focus would be on the UN General Assembly in New York, and the people pointed out that Japan is set to hold elections for the upper chamber of the Diet or the Parliament in July, leaving little time for preparations for a summit. The summit will be preceded by a meeting of the foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan and the US - the four members of Quad - that is set to be hosted by Washington either in late June or early July, the people said. As preparations have progressed for the summit, the four members of Quad have felt the need to make the agenda more focused so that the grouping can come up with concrete deliverables, the people said. 'There was a feeling that the Quad had spread itself too thin by taking on too many things. There is a need for a more focused agenda,' one of the people said. The focus in shaping the agenda for the Quad Leaders Summit will be on infrastructure and technology, which both dovetail into creating economic security, maritime security and maritime domain awareness, and disaster response, a second person said. The people also said some aspects of shaping the agenda were influenced by the imperatives of the Donald Trump administration in the US. 'The cancer moonshot, which was conceived at the behest of the Biden administration, doesn't appear to be a priority at the moment,' the second person said. The Quad Cancer Moonshot, a global offshoot of a US initiative, focused on reducing the burden of cancer in the Indo-Pacific region, starting with cervical cancer. 'The Quad partners are giving shape to efforts to offer technology and funding for infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific so that smaller countries in the region have more options,' a third person said. The four members of Quad have already done considerable work to bolster the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), which was launched in 2022 to combat illegal fishing and counter 'dark shipping'. Last year, the Quad agreed to expand this initiative to the Indian Ocean through the Indian Navy's Information Fusion Centre in Gurugram. The initiative aims to improve real-time maritime monitoring, particularly the identifying and tracking of suspicious or unlawful activities such as 'dark shipping', whereby ships switch off their tracking systems. In addition to the maritime domain awareness initiative, the Quad recently launched the Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN), which enables the grouping to leverage shared logistics capabilities in the Indo-Pacific to support the response to natural disasters. The people said IPMDA and IPLN reflect the Quad's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and highlight practical cooperation to address regional challenges. Counter-terrorism too is expected to figure in both the upcoming meeting of Quad foreign ministers and the summit, and India will expect support from the other members of the grouping for its new approach to counter cross-border terrorism backed by Pakistan, the people said.
The Hindu
01-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
U.S. notifies potential sale of IPDMA-related equipment worth $131 million to India
In an indication that the ambitious initiative of Quad grouping for the region — the Indo-Pacific maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) — is making progress, the U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) issued a notification stating that U.S. State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to India of IPMDA and related equipment for an estimated cost of $131 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on April 30, the notification said. 'The Government of India has requested to buy SeaVision software (including requested software enhancements); Technical Assistance Field Team (TAFT) training; remote software and analytic support; access to SeaVision documentation; and other related elements of logistics and program support.' The IPMDA was announced by the Quad grouping, comprising of India, Australia, Japan and U.S., at the Tokyo summit in May 2022 to track 'dark shipping' and build a 'faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners' waters' integrating three critical regions in the Indo-Pacific — the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the U.S. by helping to strengthen the U.S.-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defence partner, which continues to be an 'important force' for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia regions, the DSCA noted. 'The proposed sale will improve India's capability to meet current and future threats by bolstering its maritime domain awareness, analytical capabilities, and strategic posture. India will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces.' The principal contractor will be Hawkeye 360, located in Herndon, Virginia. The notification stated that at the moment, it wasn't aware of any offset agreement in the potential sale. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor, it added. The description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity, and the actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements and so on. In the last two years, the IPMDA was taken up on a pilot scale in a country in the grouping, testing it in their surrounding areas. It is set for a full-scale launch very soon, officials said. The IPMDA seeks to establish a comprehensive system for monitoring and securing maritime activities in the Indo-Pacific, ensuring the safety of critical sea lines of communication, and promoting cooperation among like-minded nations in the region, Indian Navy Chief Adm R. Hari Kumar told The Hindu in November 2023.
