Rise of Minilateralism in Indo-Pacific

Syllabus :GS 2/IR

In Context

• The Indo-Pacific region has notably emerged as a pivot for minilateral activity in recent years.

More In News

• The US Secretary of Defense met his Australian, and Japanese counterparts to institutionalize and launch the ‘Squad’ as a new four-way security arrangement in the Indo-Pacific. 

Minilateralism

• It refers to a pragmatic approach where a small group of countries collaborate on specific issues .
• Minilaterals refer to informal and more targeted initiatives intended to address a “specific threat, contingency or security issue with fewer states  sharing the same interest for resolving it within a finite period of time.”
• Their outcomes and commitments are voluntary in nature.
• Minilateral cooperation is being witnessed on all vital themes for international cooperation, such as climate change, economic cooperation, trade, connectivity, financial regulation, and security. 
•  a range of minilaterals : the Quad, the India-Japan-US trilateral, and the India-France-Australia trilateral have been created to advance the interests of like-minded countries.
  •  They also provide an avenue for participation of countries like India, who lack a similar decision-making capacity in forums like the UN Security Council.

Rise of Minilateralism

• It is associated with stagnation in reforms, and the perceived failure of multilateral organisations to achieve global cooperation on the most pertinent issues facing the international community. 
• In multilateral organisations ,consensus seems impossible and reforms remain elusive, while vested interests and institutional inertia continue to hamper decision-making. 
• Large organisations with formal institutional structure, international bureaucracies, and heterogenous membership, can face hurdles that impede prompt decision-making. These transaction costs associated with multilateral frameworks have made minilateralism a more preferred mechanism. 
• The growth of minilaterals is thus often viewed as a solution to address the inefficiency of multilaterals. 

Benefits 

• Minilateralism allows a group of countries with shared interests and values to bypass seemingly moribund frameworks, and resolve issues of common concern.
  • These arrangements are voluntary, and follow a bottom-up approach. 
• It can bring certain advantages, including speed, flexibility, modularity, and possibilities for experimentation. 
• In climate action , minilaterals can help countries to cooperate on research and implementation of technologies in the field of renewable energies. 
• In trade negotiations, minilaterals can fill gaps in multilateral frameworks, and allow countries to engage in political dialogue to resolve outstanding, global-level issues. 
• In security cooperation, minilaterals are a useful tool of diplomacy as they complement existing bilateral partnerships, allow countries to focus on specific regions, while the closed-door nature of discussions in minilaterals helps retain confidentiality.
  • Minilateralism can provide a forum to strengthen defence and security cooperation in new regional theatres, such as the Indo-Pacific. 
• Minilateralism provides a pathway for increasing political dialogue and enhancing confidence-building between key partners.
  • This in turn can widen opportunities for streamlining negotiations before multilateral platforms and work towards the larger goal of international cooperation and global governance.
• It provides an opportunity for middle powers such as Australia, India, and Japan, to build on common interests and strengthen the regional economic and security architecture. 

Issues and Challenges

• The voluntary, non-binding and consensus-based nature of minilaterals may be less effective in shaping state policy, interests and behaviour. 
• Minilateralism also presents dangers of forum-shopping, undermining critical international organisations, and reducing accountability in global governance.
• it is difficult to measure the actual qualitative and quantitative outcomes of minilaterals.
• The rise of China as a significant political, economic and military power is treated with anxiety, and its flagship Belt and Road Initiative is seen as a means to consolidate Beijing’s geopolitical reach.

Conclusion and Way Forward

• Minilateralism can help in framing targeted partnerships that can focus energies on shared interests and concerns.
• Members have the option of engaging with different countries over separate frameworks, to coordinate policy approaches. 
• At the same time, the proliferation of minilaterals can lead to a disjointed approach towards policy and strategy on a common issue.
•  Too many frameworks can lead to fragmentation of action, and dilute outcomes which may, in turn, weaken cooperation on global issues. 
• More ways need to be explored on how minilaterals can supplement the work of multilaterals—and not subvert the work that is being done by these larger organisations. 
• A forward-looking perspective needs to be implemented in deducing how minilaterals will affect security and strategic outcomes in diverse neighbourhoods, and how their operations and outcomes can be improved. 
• The future impact of minilaterals—or multilaterals and global governance—will be based on their ability to foster cooperation and collaboration on international issues, rather than leading to a fragmentation of global governance mechanisms.