Earlier this month, US secretary of defence met his Australian, Filipino, and Japanese counterparts to institutionalize and launch the ‘Squad’ as a new four-way security arrangement in Indo-Pacific.

• The crystallization of this new quadrilateral grouping is a testament to the growing importance of “minilateralism”.

About Minilateralism

• It is an international relations concept that involves small groups of nations collaborating to tackle problems (security, economic, technological, etc.) or pursue mutual goals.
• Nature: They are informal, flexible, voluntary frameworks with varied situational interests, shared values or relevant capabilities.

 Reasons for rise of minilateralism

• Dysfunctional multilateral institutions: Diverse interests and ideologies of member states result in lack of consensus and gridlock. e.g., Dysfunctional WTO's dispute settlement system.
• Flexibility and agility: Minilaterals are relatively more flexible and agile than traditional multilateral arrangements, allowing quicker decision making and targeted cooperation.
• Issue based cooperation: Allows like-minded countries to come together on specific issues of mutual interest. e.g., Supply-Chain Resilience initiative between Australia, India, and Japan.
• Changing ‘Balance of Power’: Emergence of more aggressive and assertive China in recent times led to emergence of groupings like QUAD, AUKUS, etc.