The improvements in Indo-China relations in the past few days have raised doubts on India’s commitment to the ‘QUAD’ – a largely US led alliance to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. India’s engagement with the coalition which includes countries like : Japan & Australia and formally designated as the QUAD, has been motivated and in no small part by a protracted & contentious border conflict marked by very recent skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese forces along their shared Himalayan frontier.
On the periphery of BRICS SUMMIT, Prime Minister Modi & President Xi Jingping of the PRC reached a concord this Wednesday to ameliorate their discord and work in a coordinated manner to devise an effective border patrolling strategy. This agreement is anticipated to foster political & economic rapport between the two nations. The sudden drop in the geopolitical tension between these two nations comes as a boon to both of these countries, particularly for China as India being a leading member of QUAD might be less inclined to confront Beijing. “In this sense, the effectiveness of Quad would be diluted with a less enthusiastic India.” Zhiqun Zhu, who is a professor of political science and international affairs at Bucknell University remarked taking a broader observation of the situation.
India and China as the preeminent developing nations in the region share allied interests on a number of issues.Notably, China emerged as India’s foremost trading partner in the preceding year, though indications suggest the United States may usurp this position in the current fiscal period. This recent development indicates that the US might seek to advance it’s Indo-Pacific strategy with a diminished dependency on India and undermining its support held Zhou.
The QUAD has served as a keystone element in bolstering the American endeavour to construct a strategic nexus of alliances & partnerships to counterbalance China’s escalating military & economic prowess well reflected by its assertive maneuvers in both the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea
By taking the advantage of its relatively informal structure, the QUAD can discreetly fulfill numerous objectives akin to those of NATO extending even to the realms of military contingency planning, remarked James Jay Carafano – a key official on security affairs in an article published by the Liechtenstein based Think Tank: ‘Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG.’
Elaborating on the process of ‘Decoupling’ , China’s home grown media agency, Global Times described the improved Indo-China relations as a retaliatory geopolitical response to the US & Western efforts to reduce economic dependency on China. Amidst the backdrop of the US ‘decoupling’ strategy , the reinvigorated Indo-China collaboration paves the path for a heightened level of strategic significance asserted an editorial published on Thursday. The pressures from the US decoupling agenda and it’s imposition of technological constraints have upscaled the regional tensions and increased geopolitical risks for both the nations
