The Indo-Pacific region has become a significant geopolitical strategic focal point, and major powers in this region have started a new great game. China's role is important economically, politically, and militarily in this region.  China's emergence as a leading power has inspired historians and scholars. Many scholars, academicians, and historians criticize Eurocentric theory, which refers to the growth of China as "Oriental Backwardness." US Policymakers in Obama's era realized that they must fill the power vacuum to counter the emergence of China in Asia-Pacific, and across the region. Therefore, President Obama announced its "Pivot to the Asia-Pacific" policy in 2011. US policy shifted from Afghanistan and Iraq toward the Asia-Pacific region and dragged the South-China Sea into stratagem's ambit. However, when Donald Trump came into power in 2016, he replaced this policy with a free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy.

Mutual Interests and concerns lead the states to a more significant strategic alliance. The most important outcome is the revitalization of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which consists of four countries, the United States, Japan, Australia, and India, in 2017. All four countries are technologically and economically sound. All states have maritime powers, while the U.S. and India have nuclear capabilities. This alliance funded humanitarian responders with cargo ships and helicopters and deployed more than 40000 troops.

When Biden Administration came into power in 2021, he transformed Quad Alliance from balancing power in the South-China Sea to an advanced regional initiative and robust cooperative state agenda. The first meeting was held virtually on March 12, 2021, and in person on September 4, 2021, in Washington. This quadrilateral alliance has four purposes: Advancement of member states, countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region, strategic interests in the Indo-pacific region, and delivering on issues concerning the Indo-Pacific region.

This QUAD alliance represents the combined military strength of Australia, Japan, India, and the U.S., which strategically supervise the waters of two oceans.

The current U.S. Administration announced in Feb 2022 that it would expand Quad as a "Premier Regional Grouping" that would address essential issues in Indo-Pacific Region.

Quad's normative posture is" vaccine diplomacy." In May 2022, in a joint statement, the Quad leader announced funding US$5.2 Billion for COVID vaccine to address the shortage of COVID vaccine in the Indo-Pacific.

India’s role is a net security provider to Quad comprising states due to its size, and location in the Indo-Pacific region. India’s future role strategically and economically will be very important in balancing power in this region. India enjoys all good relations with all Quad members. The U.S., Japan, and Australia have been bound in strategic dialogue since 2002. India has been in trilateral strategic dialogue with US and Japan since 2008 and with Japan and Australia since 2012, while India does not have trilateral strategic relations with US and Australia.

Quad is moving towards its robust agenda without having a secretariat or headquarters. It supports balancing China's policy and normative posture. Normative posture can be traced to humanitarian intervention against the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004. The same normativism led Australia and India to be a part of Quad" in 2007, which is projected as an "Asian NATO." India conducted naval exercises along the Malabar Coast comprising Quad members and Singapore in September 2007. In return, China sent a demarche to all four member states, which meant they were forming an anti-China alliance.

Quad alliance is not fully active. It has limitations in grouping and needs to be achieving its agenda. These limitations are related to the functional capacity and aim of Quad members to fulfill the grouping goals.

Every member of Quad has different views on all things, but they converge in their approaches. Nevertheless, it perceives that Quad has three groups. 1) An Asian NATO is considered an Anti-China alliance that will get a military dimension. 2) This alliance will fail as in 2007. 3) Quad is moving towards turning into a substantial grouping, and it will not militarily confront China but will deter China by Four countries.

Tensions are increasing in and across the region due to the U.S., which wants to contain China which is its immediate geopolitical rivalry. The U.S. thinks that India can play the role of geostrategic balancer in this region against China. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India has changed its traditional “non-Alliance” policy. India is going in the Western camp against China. China does not consider India a threat. The Indian Ocean is a soft underbelly of the Eurasia region, and China has a strategic interest in this region which is increasing Indian anxieties. China coins the Quad in different terms such as selective multilateralism, group politics, and sea form. Former Chinese Foreign Minister Mr. Wang Yi stated to Quad a “headline-grabbing idea”. Beijing has criticized Quad's Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is near to US's policy in Asia. China believes that the Quad is a part of a grand strategy of the U.S. to encircle China, because China is emerging as a superpower, considered a threat by the U.S. to its survival as a superpower. 

Muhammad Adan Nisar is a graduate of Diplomacy & Strategic Studies (DSS) from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, and associate with the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).