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The latest episode of Statecraft examines the evolving strategic posture of the Quad nations following their New Delhi meeting, focusing on maritime domain awareness and critical mineral supply chains across the Indo-Pacific.
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00:00Hello and welcome, you're watching Statecraft with me Geeta Mohan.
00:03Now is the Quad quietly transforming from a diplomatic conversation
00:06into a real strategic coalition across the Indo-Pacific?
00:10And while Washington keeps threatening ancient powers with sanctions and pressure,
00:15are countries like Iran and China responding with something far deeper,
00:19civilizational memory?
00:21Tonight, two stories about power taking very different forms.
00:25The Quad's latest meeting in New Delhi signals a major shift toward maritime coordination,
00:31critical minerals partnerships and supply chain security,
00:34raising bigger questions about what this grouping is slowly becoming.
00:39And then, a Taj Mahal photo op by Marco Rubio triggers sharp response from Iran,
00:45exposing how America's modern power politics often clashes
00:49with civilisations thousands of years older than itself.
00:53One story about strategic alignment, the other about historical arrogance.
00:58All this and more, but first up, the headlines.
01:02Iran's foreign ministry warned of retaliation after the United States carried out strikes in southern Iran,
01:08which the US described was in self-defense.
01:11Iran said the attacks were a blatant violation of the ongoing ceasefire.
01:16Pakistan rejected Trump's diktat of mandatory joining the Abraham Accords.
01:20Pakistan's defence minister Khwaja Asif said his country will not support any agreement
01:25that contradicted the country's fundamental ideologies.
01:28Saudi Arabia, too, reaffirmed that it will not normalise relations with Israel
01:32unless there is a clear and irreversible path towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
01:39After the Quad nations discussed cooperation in critical minerals,
01:43China said it opposes the creation of exclusive small cliques and block confrontation.
01:47The Quad unveiled new measures to boost maritime surveillance and port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific.
01:56As the possibility of a deal between the US and Iran seems inching closer with Iranian delegation
02:02led by parliamentary speaker Mohamed Bagheir Galibaf travelling to Qatar
02:07to discuss peace prospects and stability in the region,
02:10Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it downed a US Reaper drone that entered its airspace
02:17as tensions continue to rise during peace negotiations.
02:21In a statement read on air by Iranian state broadcaster, that's IRIB,
02:26the IRGC's Public Relations Department also claimed it repelled additional US aircraft
02:32and warned it would respond to any further violations of its territory or ceasefire terms.
02:38This comes after the US forces attacked missile launch sites and mine-laying vessels in southern Iran,
02:45describing it as self-defence strikes.
02:48Earlier, Iranian media had reported explosions in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.
02:54Meanwhile, according to sources, Iran's negotiating team said $24 billion of frozen Iranian assets
03:01must be released in any potential deal with the US.
03:05The team also said half of the amount, $12 billion, must be released when a memorandum of understanding,
03:12that's an MOU, is announced with the remaining amount released within 60 days.
03:17Claims are being made that both the sides have reached an understanding on the issue of frozen assets
03:23through Qatar remediation and are very likely to announce an agreement soon.
03:28The talks in Qatar is happening at a time where Pakistani leaders,
03:33Shahbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Muneer are in Beijing.
03:37Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mujtaba Khamenei said on his Telegram channel,
03:41Gulf powers will no longer be a shield for the United States of America and its bases,
03:46and the US will no longer have a safe haven in the region.
03:51Israel's military, meanwhile, says it carried out attacks on more than 100 targets in Lebanon,
03:56including the Beqar Valley and various parts of southern Lebanon.
04:00Strikes targeted weapons depots, observation posts and command centers used by Hezbollah,
04:06according to IDF.
04:07The military added that an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah detonated in Israeli territory near the border with Lebanon.
04:16US President Donald Trump is pushing to expand the Abram Accords across West Asia, Middle East and beyond,
04:22but key partners are refusing to move.
04:25Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have both rejected the proposal,
04:28citing unresolved Palestinian statehood issue.
04:31So is this the moment Trump's regional vision meets its biggest political and ideological roadblock?
04:38Here is a report.
04:51U.S. President Donald Trump this week called on Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan
04:59to immediately join the Abram Accords, the U.S. prokered agreements that normalised relations with Israel.
05:06But Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have refused.
05:10Saudi Arabia made its position clear, it will only normalise relations with Israel
05:15if there is an irreversible pathway to Palestinian statehood.
05:21Not a promise, not a roadmap, something concrete and irreversible.
05:26That bar has not been met.
05:28Trump's push came as part of a broader effort to link the Abram Accords to ongoing U.S. negotiations with
05:34Iran,
05:35arguing that a regional coalition recognising Israel would make any Iran deal more historic.
05:43Saudi Arabia did not buy that framing.
05:46Saudi officials have consistently linked normalisation to concrete steps on Palestinian statehood,
05:52with East Jerusalem as its capital.
05:55Partial gestures, symbolic moves, none of that will surface, according to Riyadh.
06:00The war in Gaza has only hardened that position.
06:05Riyadh now identifies more risks than opportunities in normalising ties with Israel,
06:10in part due to deeply hostile public opinion within the kingdom.
06:14For Saudi Arabia, this is also a question of religious identity.
06:19The kingdom is the custodian of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.
06:25Any move toward recognising Israel carries enormous weight at home.
06:30The political cost is simply too high without a credible Palestinian state in sight.
06:35Pakistan was even more direct.
06:38Islamabad became the first country to openly reject Trump's proposal.
06:43Defence Minister Khwaja Asif called the Abram Accords unacceptable,
06:47arguing they clashed with Pakistan's foundational ideological position.
06:57Personally, I don't think we should be part of any accord that clashes with the fundamental ideologies.
07:02And I believe no such initiative has been taken from our side, nor has anyone asked us.
07:06We have a very clear stance that this thing is not acceptable to us.
07:10And secondly, on our passports, we are the only country whose passport doesn't even include the name of Israel.
07:16He also noted there had been no formal diplomatic communication or request from Washington regarding the matter.
07:24In its 78-year history, Pakistan has never recognised Israel.
07:29Pakistani passports do not permit travel to Israel.
07:33That is not a position any government in Islamabad can easily reverse,
07:38not with public opinion firmly against it.
07:40And not while Gaza continues to burn.
07:45Pakistani officials also stressed that the Iran ceasefire process and the Abram Accords
07:50are entirely separate issues and cannot be connected.
07:54Trump acknowledged that one or two countries might not join and said that would be acceptable.
08:01But the two countries he most needed, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, have said no.
08:06And without Saudi Arabia, the calculus for every other Muslim-majority nation changes entirely.
08:14The Abram Accords are not dead, but the expansion has hit a wall.
08:18And that wall has a name.
08:20Palestinian statehood.
08:22With Jyoti Shukla, Bureau Report, India Today Global.
08:28The Quad is beginning to look very different.
08:30For years, critics dismissed it as little more than a diplomatic talking shop.
08:35A loose conversation between four democracies worried about China's rise,
08:39but unwilling to act collectively.
08:42But now, something is changing.
08:45Quietly, steadily, and maybe strategically as well.
08:49Because the latest Quad meeting in New Delhi suggests the grouping is moving from dialogue to coordination,
08:56from statements to implementation,
08:59and from symbolism to operational cooperation.
09:02The foreign ministers of India, the United States of America, Japan, and Australia met in New Delhi with a noticeably
09:10sharper agenda.
09:11Critical minerals, maritime surveillance, energy security, port infrastructure, supply chain resilience,
09:19real projects, real funding, real coordination.
09:23U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio openly acknowledged the shift,
09:28saying the Quad's goal was to move from meeting and talking about problems to actually doing something about them.
09:35And that matters because the Quad was never designed to become NATO in Asia, at least not officially.
09:42Unlike NATO, there is no collective defence treaty, no Article 5, no integrated military command, no permanent headquarter.
09:51The Quad remains intentionally flexible, but flexibility can also become strategic ambiguity,
09:59especially when the grouping begins coordinating maritime surveillance and regional security responses.
10:05The biggest headline from this meeting was the push to strengthen maritime domain awareness.
10:11The Quad countries agreed to expand information sharing and surveillance coordination across the Indo-Pacific,
10:17beginning with the Indian Ocean region.
10:20That means tracking suspicious vessels, monitoring maritime military activity, or militia activity, so to say,
10:28watching sea lanes in real time and improving transparency across contested waters.
10:34And while China was not named directly, everybody understood the target.
10:39The joint statement raised concerns about dangerous actions in the South China Sea,
10:43unsafe manoeuvres, water cannon attacks, maritime coercion, blocking tactics.
10:50This language reflects growing frustration with Beijing's increasingly aggressive behaviour in contested waters,
10:58particularly against the Philippines.
11:01Moreover, China has now said it opposes the creation of exclusive small cliques and block confrontation.
11:08It even went on to say that coordinations should not target any third party.
11:12This is where the Quad's evolution becomes significant, because maritime domain awareness sounds technical.
11:19But strategically, it is foundational.
11:22Before countries coordinate militarily, they first coordinate information, intelligence, surveillance, tracking,
11:30shared situational awareness.
11:32That is exactly what the Quad is now building.
11:35And the Indian Ocean is not a random starting point.
11:38It is one of the world's most critical strategic corridors.
11:43Energy shipments from the Middle East or West Asia, trade routes connecting Asia, Africa and Europe,
11:49submarine pathways, choke points like the Strait of Hormuz and the Malacca Strait.
11:53Whoever shapes maritime awareness in these waters gains enormous strategic leverage.
12:00The timing is also important.
12:03The meeting took place amid instability around the Strait of Hormuz after tensions involving Iran disrupted global energy flows.
12:10India and Japan remain heavily dependent on imported energy moving through these particular waters.
12:17So for the Quad, maritime security is no longer an abstract geopolitical concept.
12:22It actually is directly tied to economic survival.
12:27But the Quad is not only hardening at sea, it is also hardening economically.
12:32One of the most consequential announcements from the meeting was a new critical minerals framework.
12:37The four countries are planning to mobilize up to $20 billion through public and private investment
12:43to strengthen supply chain for rare earths and strategic minerals.
12:48And this is crucial because critical minerals are the backbone of the modern technological economy.
12:54Electric vehicles, advanced semiconductors, missiles, batteries, renewable energy systems, artificial intelligence infrastructure.
13:04Nearly every strategic industry now depends on secure access to these materials.
13:10Right now, China dominates large parts of the global processing chain.
13:16So the Quad is responding with a coordinated diversification strategy,
13:20not through tariffs alone, not through speeches alone, but through investment coordination.
13:26Mining partnerships, processing networks, recycling systems, supply chain mapping.
13:32This is economic statecraft becoming increasingly strategic.
13:37You see, the Quad countries each bring something important to this equation.
13:41The United States brings military power and alliance networks.
13:45India brings geography and scale across the Indian Ocean.
13:48Japan brings advanced technology and financing.
13:52Australia brings resources and Pacific access.
13:56Separately, they're influential.
13:58Together, they become strategically consequential.
14:02But there are still limits to how far the Quad can go.
14:05India remains cautious about formal alliances.
14:09New Delhi values strategic autonomy and avoids treaty-bound military blocks.
14:13That is one major reason why the Quad countries avoid explicitly calling itself a security alliance.
14:21India wants cooperation without entanglement.
14:25And yet, even without formal military integration, the grouping is becoming more operational.
14:31Joint naval exercises have expanded.
14:33Intelligence coordination is deepening.
14:35Technology partnerships are growing.
14:37Maritime surveillance is improving.
14:40Supply chain cooperation is accelerating.
14:42This may not be a military alliance on paper, but functionally, elements of strategic alignment are clearly intensifying.
14:51In many ways, the Quad is evolving into something more flexible than NATO.
14:56Less formal, less institutional, but potentially more adaptable to modern geopolitical competition.
15:02Especially in an era where conflicts are no longer fought only with tanks and missiles,
15:07but also through technology standards, shipping routes, ports, minerals, cyber networks and supply chains.
15:16The question now is no longer whether the Quad exists.
15:19It does.
15:20That debate is over.
15:22The real question is what the Quad is becoming.
15:25Because without formally calling itself a military alliance, the grouping is steadily constructing many of the capabilities, networks and strategic
15:34habits that alliances are built upon.
15:37Quietly, gradually, but unmistakably.
15:43U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked up to the Taj Mahal, took a photo, posted it and got
15:49schooled by Iran on the internet.
15:52Tehran reminded him politely but devastatingly that the Taj Mahal was built for a Persian queen.
15:58The right-hand man of President Donald Trump, who flies around threatening the end of ancient civilizations, got a history
16:05lesson from a monument.
16:06And here's the thing, Iran didn't even raise its voice.
16:10It just pointed.
16:12That's the difference between a country with 3,000 years of memory and one that still calls a 250-year
16:19-old building historic.
16:21So before Washington lines up its next threat, maybe it's worth asking, do these people actually know who they're talking
16:28to?
16:29Now, Marco Rubio's Taj Mahal moment looked harmless.
16:32Iran turned it into a history lesson.
16:34Why? Because Tehran understood the symbolism immediately.
16:39The Taj Mahal was not just an Indian monument.
16:41It carried Persian influence, Persian art, Persian culture, Persian identity.
16:48Iran's message was simple, and I quote,
16:50You pose in monuments tied to our civilizational history while threatening us like we are some temporary regime.
16:57That troll was not random internet sarcasm.
17:01That was strategic mockery.
17:03And honestly, Washington walked straight into it.
17:07America often treats countries like software updates.
17:10Sanction them.
17:11Pressure them.
17:12Threaten them.
17:13Isolate them.
17:14Done.
17:15Problem solved.
17:16But civilizations do not work like apps on a phone.
17:19You cannot uninstall Persia.
17:21You cannot delete China.
17:23Marco Rubio and many in Washington keep using language about ending threats, crushing rivals, isolating supply chains, or bringing countries
17:34to their knees.
17:35Sounds dramatic in a press conference, but history laughs at that language.
17:41There's another very interesting point to make.
17:43Back in 2018, Trump's partner in crime and the sworn enemy of Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited
17:51the Taj Mahal.
17:51Now, why does this matter beyond a social media moment?
17:55Because Rubio and the wider Washington machine have made it their business to threaten Iran with extinction.
18:02Literal extinction.
18:04End of civilization language.
18:06The kind of talk you use when you think the other side has something to lose, something fragile, something new.
18:14But Iran is not new.
18:17Persia existed before Rome, before Greece became Greece, before the concept of a nation state was even a thought in
18:24anybody's head.
18:26Iran has been invaded, occupied, bombed and sanctioned, and it's still Iran.
18:31Iran, the language, the poetry, the identity, intact.
18:36So when Washington says, end of civilization to Tehran, what does Tehran hear?
18:41It hears someone who's never read a history book threaten someone who wrote history books.
18:48Same story with China.
18:50Different chapter, same mistake.
18:52Washington's big plan for China, cut off the supply chains, isolate the economy, squeeze it until it breaks.
18:59Sounds tough, makes great headlines.
19:02But then, Trump visited China, and he came across trees.
19:07Trees in China older than the United States of America.
19:10Let that land.
19:12The country America wants to isolate has trees that watched civilizations rise and fall while America's founding fathers were still
19:20being born.
19:23Look at this tree.
19:25These two trees have grown together.
19:27It's over 100 years old.
19:28Actually, more than that, probably 200 years old.
19:31Let me tell you, all the trees on this side are over 200 to 300 years old.
19:35Over there, there are some that are more than 400 years old.
19:40China didn't just survive history.
19:42China is history.
19:444,000 years of continuous civilization, writing, governance, philosophy, trade, all of it predating America by millennia.
19:53Threatening to cut off China's supply chains is like threatening to cut off a river by blocking one stream.
19:59The river has been flowing longer than your dam has existed.
20:03Here's the real strategic blunder Washington keeps making.
20:07America treats Iran and China like modern rivals, like startups competing in the same market.
20:13You outspend them, outsanction them, outmaneuver them, and they fold.
20:19But Iran and China don't think in quarters.
20:22They don't think in election cycles.
20:24They think in centuries.
20:26They've watched empires far more powerful than America come, threaten, collapse, and disappear while they remained.
20:35The Mongols conquered China.
20:37China absorbed the Mongols.
20:39Alexander reached Persia.
20:41Persia outlasted Alexander's empire by 2,000 years.
20:45This isn't ancient trivia.
20:47This is strategic memory.
20:49And Washington has none of it.
20:51So here's the answer to the Rubio question.
20:53Here's what that Taj Mahal photo actually exposed.
20:58It wasn't just ignorance of architecture.
21:00It was a metaphor for the entire foreign policy posture.
21:04America walked into a building built by the civilization it threatens, took a selfie, and called it diplomacy.
21:11Iran pointed.
21:13That difference changes everything.
21:15Because civilizations with thousands of years of memory do not panic easily.
21:20They absorb, adapt, survive.
21:22Empires rise, empires fall, Persia stayed, China stayed.
21:28And somewhere in China, a tree older than America probably watched this entire debate with complete indifference.
21:38That's all in this edition of Statecraft.
21:40Before we go, in Dhaka, the viral albino buffalo nicknamed Donald Trump is now set to be sacrificed for evil
21:48other.
21:49The animal became an internet sensation because of his hairstyle, reminding many of the American president's Donald Trump's signature hairstyle.
21:57Sometimes virality on the internet lasts for weeks, sometimes only until Eid.
22:03Take a look, goodbye, and take care.
22:05I'm not hydrogen.
22:08No question.
22:11I love you.
22:17I love you.
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