From India’s point of view, this was also like establishing an early barrier to any hostile activity of the Chinese in the Indian Ocean. India, however, wanted the security cooperation under Quad to be reinforced by a more effective economic participation among the countries of the region to counter the Chinese attempt to dominate them.

The signing of the agreement on May 24 in Tokyo in the presence of US President Joe Biden for launching the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) involving nine other countries of the region besides the Quad members, is an affirmation of the Indian approach to the pathway of economic friendships for global peace and development and an answer of the democratic world to the dictatorships of the times. The unusually strong denunciation by China of this US-led move for strengthening economic cooperation in the Indo- Pacific is an admission by the former that this development would effectively stall the Chinese strategy of using the economic route to achieving a political sway here.

Prime Minister Modi underscored the positive character of the all-embracing Indian strategy when he emphasised that ‘despite the adverse situation of Covid-19, we have increased our coordination for vaccine delivery, climate action, supply chain resilience, disaster response, economic cooperation and other areas’. This, according to him ‘had helped to establish peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific’. It is remarkable that the Tokyo summit did not allow the Ukraine-Russia military conflict to cast its shadow on Quad’s primary mission of countering an expansionist China in the Indo- Pacific. The joint statement of the leaders, issued after the summit on May 24, reiterated their steadfast resolve to work for a free and open Indo-Pacific that was inclusive and resilient but it also enlarged the forum’s ambit by declaring that ‘Quad is a force for good committed to bringing tangible benefits for the region’ and keeping the latter free from ‘all forms of military, economic and political coercion’.