INDIA, US, UAE, And ISRAEL Form A New QUAD

WHY IN THE NEWS?

India, Israel, United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are ready to build on the momentum created by the “Abraham Accords” by holding the first meeting of their foreign ministers on October 18, 2021.

About:

• The meeting is being described in some quarters as a “new Quad”.
• It was joined by:

1. External affairs minister S Jaishankar,
2. US secretary of state Antony Blinken from Washington
3. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid from Jerusalem
4. UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi.

• This meeting is the first to bring four countries together on a single platform.
• The meeting will also be linked with India’s efforts of building new plurilateral and multilateral partnerships which focuses on cooperation in areas including security, connectivity and energy.

Trilateral Cooperation

India, Israel and the UAE have also stepped-up a trilateral cooperation, especially in trade and investment, after US negotiated for Abraham Accords in August 2020 between two West Asian countries. Under this partnership, an Israel-based company will produce a robotic solar cleaning technology in India which will be used for a project in the UAE.

Abraham Accords

Abraham Accords are a joint statement between Israel, the US and the UAE. It was signed on August 13, 2020. The term was also used to refer to normalisation agreements between Israel & UAE and Israel & Bahrain collectively. It is the first public normalization of relations between any Arab country and Israel since 1994. The accords have been named after Abraham, emphasizing the shared belief between Judaism and Islam. Both of them are Abrahamic religions which strictly support monotheistic worship of the God of Abraham.