ASIA-PACIFIC has been the primary venue for the US-China strategic competition. However, the competition is now spilling into other regions too, including the Middle East, where the US is gradually losing its influence. In order to bolster its standing in the Middle East, the US facilitated the process of normalisation of ties between Israel and the Arabs. Initially called the Abraham Accords, the UAE was the first to normalise ties with Israel in August 2020, followed by Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. In the follow-up, a grouping that came to be known as the ‘Negev Forum’ was formed to promote economic cooperation amongst Arab states that had normalised ties with Israel.
Encouraged by the Abraham Accords, the US facilitated the formation of a forum for economic cooperation among India, Israel, the UAE and US. Called the I2U2, the foreign ministers of the grouping first met in October 2021. The forum is also referred to as the West Asian Quad, the western counterpart of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue where the US, India, Australia and Japan are weaving a kind of containment arc against China.