NEW DELHI: The joint statement issued by the Quad after the first leader-level summit harps on about a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific as the shared vision. In a subsequent joint article by the U.S. President and the prime ministers of India, Japan and Australia, the leaders talk about coercion and the need to apply international laws to the maritime domain. All this without explicitly mentioning China. In this edition of ‘The Gist’, StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, former Indian Foreign Secretary Dr Kanwal Sibal and special advisor to former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Dr Tomohiko Taniguchi, discuss the ‘silent’ China factor and the areas of Quad cooperation as the leaders have pledged.
