Indrani Bagchi

Indrani Bagchi is The Times of India’s diplomatic editor. She calls this blog a wide canvas through which she looks at the wo … MORE

The first in-person Quad summit in Washington DC marked the start of 21st-century foreign policy. India, the US, Japan and Australia took the high road to “recognise that our shared futures will be written in the Indo-Pacific.” Buried in the Quad joint statement, this acknowledgement effectively pivots the Quad towards the oceans, China, and a whole new set of challenges that will test these powers as never before. Because what’s at stake is a new world order, with new standards and ways of cooperation. It’s not the United Nations, but interlocking groups of converging and connecting countries.

Technology, big enough, is foreign policy, and that was the singular message from the summit. It is deeply reassuring because a collaborative future by building 21st-century technology backbone is key to a multipolar world order.