During the just-concluded visit of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to India, the two countries called for strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between New Delhi and Hanoi, while affirming the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea.
But it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who took a dig at China, when during the joint press conference with the visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister, he stated, “We support evolution, not expansionism.” All this along, while highlighting that new steps have been taken for cooperation in the field of defence and security with Vietnam, PM Modi said, “We will continue our cooperation for a free, open, rules-based and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”
Without naming China, India’s top governmental authority appeared to be unsparing in presenting New Delhi’s move towards Indo-Pacific. Its glimpse can be seen in New Delhi’s decision to conclude an agreement with Hanoi for a $300 million credit line to strengthen the latter’s maritime security.
Despite such approaches aimed at extending support to China’s close neighbours in bringing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, India is criticised by Western think tanks and commentators for its role in the Quad
Western Commentators’ Assessment of India
Despite such approaches aimed at extending support to China’s close neighbours in bringing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, India is criticised by Western think tanks and commentators for its role in the Quad. They say the Quad has dissipated from its original mandate as a hard power security alliance with focus on the Indo-Pacific to a group that now works in the areas of health, climate change, critical and emerging technology, space, infrastructure and cyber.
“New Delhi has traditionally been regarded, particularly in the West, as the Quad’s weakest link due to its reluctance to deepen defence cooperation (with member countries)”, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs said in its commentary on the Quad.
But harsher criticism for India and its role in the Quad came from the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank. It said, “Following the Sino-Indian border clashes in 2020, India reinvigorated its engagement with the grouping, with its first leader-level summit held in 2021…India’s renewed engagement is gradual de-securitisation of the Quad in areas of traditional security.”
The Australian think tank said that only after the Quad failed to emerge as a strong deterrent force against China in the Indo-Pacific, the US, Australia together with Japan and the Philippines formed the Squad in May this year. The US-led alliance, it is said, challenges the Quad in its original mandate of addressing maritime security-related issues. The Squad’s focus is currently limited to the South China Sea, but given the growing assertiveness of China, its possible presence in other regions cannot be ruled out, the Lowy Institute said.
Securitisation of the Quad will have a bearing on India’s friends. It is a leading voice of the Global South, as such several countries will start suspecting its motive if it plays any role in making the Quad a hard power security group
However, in the process of biased evaluation of India’s role in the Quad, Western think tanks and commentators forget that India is the only country in the informal group, which shares a long boundary with China. If India leans its weight in the securitisation of the Quad, there are possibilities of China mounting an aggression against the country at the Line of Actual Control.
Why India Resists Quad’s Securitisation
Both India and China are nuclear powers in Asia and there are possibilities, that a mere skirmish on the border, may escalate into a full-blown war. This is what India will never like, given the fact that it aims at becoming a third powerful economy in a few years and an advanced economy by 2047. A full-blown India-China war will wipe out the dream New Delhi has, for its advancement and growth.
Besides, securitisation of the Quad will have a bearing on India’s friends. It is a leading voice of the Global South, as such several countries will start suspecting its motive if it plays any role in making the Quad a hard power security group. Therefore, so long as the Quad remains a strategic grouping of democracies with shared interests in peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, it will be welcomed by countries in the ASEAN.
Clearly, the ASEAN is against any conflict and averse to any idea of the Quad emerging as a challenge to China. The 10 countries’ grouping is happy that India’s presence in the Quad has helped it becoming a non-military and cooperative initiative
The then Indonesian President Joko Widodo in an interview with New Strait Times on May 8, 2023 said, “ASEAN is the only regional organisation that offers various forms of diplomacy. ASEAN’s principle is collaboration, cooperation, and active involvement. We do not want any conflict. We do not want isolation…we should view the Quad and the AUKUS as partners, and not competitors. With regard to anything that happens in the region, ASEAN’s aim is to make the region a stable and peaceful one.”
Clearly, the ASEAN is against any conflict and averse to any idea of the Quad emerging as a challenge to China. The 10 countries’ grouping is happy that India’s presence in the Quad has helped it becoming a non-military and cooperative initiative.
Overall, the ASEAN’s principled position is to maintain neutrality and avoid taking sides; it is against any move to make the Quad, a US-led tool to contain China. It is also against collective action against Beijing for the larger cause of peace and stability in the region
However, it has no problem if an individual Quad member engages with an individual ASEAN country or the whole ASEAN bloc in military terms to fight off China’s hegemony in the South China Sea. For example, India-Philippines, India-Vietnam or India-Indonesia-Australia engagements are seen by the ASEAN as limited efforts in the way of creating deterrence against China. And then, in May 2023, India conducted joint maritime drills with the ASEAN countries in the South China Sea.
Overall, the ASEAN’s principled position is to maintain neutrality and avoid taking sides; it is against any move to make the Quad, a US-led tool to contain China. It is also against collective action against Beijing for the larger cause of peace and stability in the region.
“We are witnessing regional conflicts and would like to establish peace with India as a partner. There should be peace in Indo-Pacific. There should be peace at South China Sea, Red Sea, West Asia and Myanmar,” Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said during the joint press conference with PM Modi in New Delhi on August 1.
“No country should be allowed to use our land as a military base. We are witnessing regional conflicts and would like to establish peace with India as a partner. There should be peace in Indo-Pacific. There should be peace at South China sea, Red Sea, West Asia and Myanmar.’’ PM Chinh further said.
Whatever be India baiters’ analysis be, New Delhi has markedly given a different profile to the Quad. In fact, by working together with the countries of Southeast Asia or the Indo-Pacific, the Quad can open-up ways of delivering public goods to people in Southeast Asia and the larger Indo-Pacific region
Indeed, when there is a need to build trust between the Quad and the countries of the Indo-Pacific, some Western analysts try to sow the seeds of misunderstanding between them by projecting India as a weak prop that seeks strategic autonomy at the cost of a larger goal of countering China. “An honest evaluation of the Quad militarily will highlight the fact that India is hampering its overall effectiveness,” Chet Lee, a US-based security expert said in his article in The Diplomat.
To conclude, whatever be India baiters’ analysis be, New Delhi has markedly given a different profile to the Quad. In fact, by working together with the countries of Southeast Asia or the Indo-Pacific, the Quad can open-up ways of delivering public goods to people in Southeast Asia and the larger Indo-Pacific region. This is what India wants— and all this is contrary to the thinking of some Western analysts whose understanding of the Quad is limited to militarisation and strategic dominance vis-à-vis China without realising the ground reality and reading minds of the people in the region.
–The writer is a senior journalist with wide experience in covering international affairs. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
–The writer is a senior journalist with wide experience in covering international affairs. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
