The foreign ministers of India, Israel, the United States (US), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—S. Jaishankar, Yair Lapid, Antony Blinken, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan—participated in a virtual meeting on Monday in which they discussed bolstering cooperation in defence, maritime security, and trade.
Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar called the meeting “fruitful” and said the leaders “discussed working together more closely on economic growth and global issues. He also said that they agreed to organise an “expeditious follow-up.”
Blinken echoed a similar celebratory sentiment, saying that the meeting featured successful discussions on “shared issues of concern in the region and globally and the importance of expanding [their] economic and political collaboration.” He said that the leaders spoke of enhancing interpersonal ties in technology and science and public health. In addition, he underscored the Biden administration’s support for such future collaborations.
The group, which is being referred to by several commentators as the “new Quad,” is currently building on the hard-won momentum of the Abraham Accords. The Accords were introduced by the US during Donald Trump’s presidency and signed by the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. They aimed to normalise ties between Israel and the Arab world by pursuing a vision of “peace, security, and prosperity in the Middle East and around the world.” India has supported the Accords, which the External Affairs Ministry applauded for bringing “peace and stability in West Asia,” describing the region as its “extended neighbourhood.”
Individually, the countries have had bilateral and even trilateral interactions before. For instance, Jaishankar is currently on a five-day visit to Israel to meet with Lapid and the country’s president, prime minister, and the Knesset speaker. During the first two days of the visit, sources suggest that the representatives of the two countries discussed finalising a free trade agreement by November.
Furthermore, India, Israel, and the UAE have been bolstering their trilateral cooperation, particularly in trade and investment ever since the conclusion of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE in August 2020. In May 2021, they formalised their trilateral partnership, through which an Israeli company will produce robotic solar cleaning technology for a project in the UAE. Additionally, last week, Lapid, Blinken, and Zayed Al Nahyan held discussions on Iran’s nuclear program.
Against this backdrop, Monday’s meeting, which is the first such formal interaction between all four countries, indicates greater collaboration in the Middle East between both regional and global partners. However, unlike the Quad, which focuses on China and the Indo-Pacific, this partnership is likely to focus on the threats to peace and stability in West Asia, particularly Iran and Afghanistan.
India, US, UAE, Israel to Collaborate on Defence, Maritime Security
The group, which is being referred to by several commentators as the “new Quad” builds on the hard-won momentum of the Abraham Accords.
October 19, 2021
SOURCE: ECONOMIC TIMES