Why Americas Quad is not a priority for India
The government of Narendra Modi has been on a learning curve during its three-year dalliance with a US-led containment strategy against China. India lurched onto the US bandwagon and assumed a hardline stance toward China, one that pivoted on aggressive nationalism. Sino-Indian relations deteriorated sharply – and came to the brink of war in a face-off in the Himalayas last summer.
Ironically, that faceoff brought a dose of sober thinking and eventually triggered a review of India’s China policies. Of course, the course-correction bell has been ringing for other reasons too – India’s slipping foothold in its own neighborhood in the face of increasingly assertive Chinese moves to expand its footprint in South Asia; Delhi’s growing disenchantment with the Trump administration; an improved climate in China-Asean relations; and, most importantly, the realization that China’s rise is a geopolitical reality.
India’s Foreign Secretary, Vijay Gokhale, undertook a pioneering mission to Beijing last month to open a new conversation and to prepare the ground for a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, due to take place in Qingdao, China, in June. Gokhale’s mission was productive.
An acclaimed ‘China hand,’ Gokhale was received in Beijing by Foreign Minister Wang Yi – and, in a significant gesture, by Yang Jiechi, a State Councilor and member of the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. A schedule of sustained bilateral engagement was discussed, including a visit by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to China next month.
But what caught the mind’s eye was the official Indian readout on Gokhale’s discussions in Beijing: “They noted the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s concerns, interests and aspirations. Both sides underlined that as two major countries, sound development of relations between India and China is a factor of stability in the world today.”
http://www.atimes.com/article/americas-quad-not-priority-india/