Chidambaram opines on new 'quad' India-US-UAE-Israel: 'Pluralist there, majoritarian here'

As a new 'Quad' emerges, ex-Union Minister P Chidambaram on Friday, pointed out that India reflected its pluralism in the India-US-UAE-Israel quadrilateral economic forum. Chidambaram state that while India and US were secular, Israel was a Jewish state and UAE an Islamic state. Accusing Modi govt of doublespeak, he asked why it was supporting majoritarianism in India and subscribing to pluralism in the world.

Chidambaram opines on 'new quad'

What is new Quad?

This week India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States began a new quadrilateral economic forum which will deal with climate change, energy, and maritime security. Similar to the original  Quadrilateral Security Dialogue of India-US-Australia-Japan, this new quad engages India and US' cooperation against instability. While the original quad targets China, this quad targets the instability in the Middle East (West Asia).

As per reports, the new quad meeting was joined by India's External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, US State secretary Anthony Blinken, Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid and UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The meeting held on 18 October comes in the wake of India-Israel-UAE's trilateral cooperation in trade and investment focusing on solar projects, energy. The new quad has also emerged a year after the Israel-US-UAE 'Abraham accords' were signed - normalising Israel-UAE ties.

Abraham Accords & Quad summit

In August 2020, the United Arab Emirates, forged ties with Israel and US, recognising the Jewish state for the first time. UAE-Israel ties' normalisation was facilitated by the then-US President Donald Trump after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu held six weeks of indirect talks through Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser with  Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed. Following UAE, Sudan, Morocco, and Bahrain too recognised Israel. While most nations have welcomed the deal which ended may end  72 years of hostilities in the region, Iran, Hamas have condemned the move raising concerns about the fate of Palestinians in the region. Apart from UAE, Egypt and Jordan are the other Arab nations that have forged peace with Israel.

On the other hand, the first in-person meeting between the Quad partners wash held during PM Modi's 3-day tour in US. The QUAD partners - US (Joe Biden), Japan (Yoshihide Suga), India (PM Modi), Australia (Scott Morrison) held a joint meeting and vowed to bolster infrastructure, 5G, ASEAN cooperation, COVID vaccine partnership and announced a new  ‘Quad fellowship’ for STEM. The quad's main aim has been to counter China's maritime ambitions in the South China sea, with US-Australia announcing a new AUKUS submarine deal, miffing ally France.