China Should Increase Interaction With India To Balance Quad
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces
The Government of India led by Prime Minister Modi will never let Quad the Indo-Pacific Initiative become a military block against China, unless China itself makes it happen. In order to consolidate its position in Indo Pacific, India is deepening its ties with each of the countries in the region through trade, bilateral and cultural ties, just like in the times of Cholas and the Pallavas.
Similarly to consolidate its position in Asia it has gone into bilateral relationship with most of the Countries including, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, UAE, Oman, Afghanistan, Central Asian Republics and Russia and of course SAARC Countries less Pakistan. India has also reciprocated various friendly actions of China but still there is a lot of distance which needs to be covered.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – known as Quad – between the US, Japan, India and Australia was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the foreign minister’s level for the first time. The Quad was revived in November 2017 after nearly ten years, and since then had met only at the joint-secretary level.
This first foreign-minister-level meeting is thus an up gradation. Though in spite of speculations this Dialogue is not going to become a NATO-like group in Asia. India is firmly against such things and will not become a camp follower.
The upgrading of the Quad has taken place because of the importance being attached to it by the US Defense Department. In June it issued the first Indo-Pacific Strategy report, which is widely regarded as a signal that the Trump administration will further strengthen its strategic competition with China in the region.
For Washington, the Quad may be the core mechanism for implementing its Indo-Pacific Strategy, to contain Beijing. Through Quad, the existing trilateral interactions – one between US, Japan and Australia, the other between US, Japan and India can be further integrated into just one initiative.
Washington also hopes to conduct joint Quad patrols in the South China Sea and to establish a regional Quad missile defense system. A kind of a military block which India will just refuse. It is not that India is afraid to confront China, it will be done if required like it was done at Doklam, but not at behest of someone else.
Even the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison stressed that Canberra’s had comprehensive trade partnerships with Beijing and said, China’s economic growth is welcomed by Australia.However as brought out by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that Quad had a shared interest in building a free and open Indo Pacific and joint efforts to promote regional stability.
The up gradation of Quad talks may be making Beijing uneasy because it knows that no one will permit the Chinese to treat the Seas around China as its own private property. In case, it is so then India can rightly claim the entire Indian Ocean. However there is no need for the Chinese to panic or overreact, provided China improves its dealing and relationship with India, Japan and Australia.
As a major power at global level, New Delhi will further enhance its ties with Japan, USA and Australia, but will not do so for containment of any other country. India is quite capable in dealing with all types of actual or imaginary threats. It is in USA’s interest to treat India as an ally in terms of defense technology and access to advanced weapons without any strings attached. Accordingly USA has started doing this after the CAATSA tantrums. India will retain its own independent world view, just as it did during the Cold war period between USSR and USA.
Modi had very categorically told the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018 that “India does not see the Indo-Pacific region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country.” Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in June at a press meeting that “The Indo-Pacific is for something, not against somebody. And that something is peace, security, stability, prosperity and rules.”
China on its part must ensure that no regional hegemony of any kind is imposed by it on South East Asia or in the Pacific. China must resolve its border disputes with all its neighbours including India.
Any economic activity in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir by China must be under taken with permission of India only, rather China should gracefully leave the area. Next China must be ready to discuss the freedom of the Tibetan people. Also it must stop all kinds of repression in Xingjian against the Muslim population.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is to visit India for an informal meeting with Modi in October, after the Wuhan tete-a-tete in China in April 2018, an unusual diplomatic move between the two sides to enhance trust and manage differences. So if China is ready to play ping pong as per rules, it has nothing to fear from India.
