Washington: India, the United States, Japan and Australia have moved closer to establishing common procedures for a logistics network aimed at speeding up disaster relief across the Indo-Pacific, the four governments said on Monday.
The Quad partners held a two-day tabletop exercise in Tokyo on September 3 and 4 to examine how their logistics capabilities could support civilian responses to major natural disasters.
In a joint statement released on September 14, the governments reported significant progress towards developing standard operating procedures for the Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network, known as the IPLN.
The procedures would provide a framework for putting the network into operation. The statement did not say when they would be completed or set a date for the network to become operational.
For India, the initiative provides a framework for working with its three Quad partners on regional disaster relief. The network is intended to help the four countries use shared logistics capabilities to save lives, support recovery and assist regional partners more quickly and efficiently.
The Tokyo exercise used natural disaster scenarios to examine how the countries could draw on one another’s capabilities, and its focus was on civilian response efforts across the region.
The four governments also expressed sympathy for people affected by recent floods and reaffirmed their commitment to helping regional partners in times of need.
“Quad partners expressed their deepest condolences to all those affected by the recent devastating floods and underscored their shared commitment to supporting regional partners in times of need,” the statement said.
The partners said work on the network would continue through additional tabletop and field training exercises, confidence-building measures and exchanges among subject matter experts.
Those activities form part of the effort to put the initiative into operation. The Tokyo exercise advanced that process by examining coordination during disaster scenarios and developing the procedures intended to guide the partners’ work.
The governments linked the exercise to the Quad’s wider commitment to practical regional cooperation and a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“This TTX reaffirmed the Quad’s unwavering commitment to strengthen practical cooperation to address regional challenges and to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement said, using the abbreviation for tabletop exercise.
The statement’s account of the Tokyo discussions centred on disaster preparedness, humanitarian relief and recovery. It set out how the partners intend to keep developing the network, but provided no details on the logistical resources each country would contribute.
(IANS)
