RETURNING TO QUAD: INDIA'S SEARCH FOR REGIONAL SECURITY

Consisting of the US, India, Japan, and Australia, the Quad consultative forum emerged as a new multi-foreign policy formation in the Indo-Pacific. Described as a strategic partnership in the face of China's increasing expansionist policies, the Quad also explains India's foreign policy's strategic autonomy and pluralistic approaches. In recent years, India's actions to improve its strategic alliances against the expansionist states in the region within the framework of the liberal order brought the Quad back to the fore of activities aimed at limiting China's actions in the region. In this context, the primary purpose of the Quad to establish a strategic partnership stems from the desire to protect maritime interests. Ensuring the security of energy resources, free trade and navigation, disputes over the border and continental shelf, and economic-based disputes are the main reasons for bringing the Quad back to the agenda. While India's pluralistic foreign policy understanding and China's recent policy perception overlap, the conflicting environment in the global world order pushes China to an expansionist policy in the Indo-Pacific; India, on the other hand, is trying to balance China by establishing various alliances. Although the scale of the economic engagement of the US with countries party to the Quad is no more significant than China's, Quad 2.0 is now a structure where the state parties can take joint steps for security and strategic partnerships due to military interests and cultural ties from the past.