The shadow of China looms large in India’s decision to exclude Australia from an upcoming multilateral naval exercise. Canberra confirmed last Thursday that its navy would not be part of Malabar 2018, which will be held off Guam between June 7 and 15.
So this year’s Malabar drills will maintain a trilateral format, involving the naval forces of India, the United States and Japan. This means the project of a Quadrilateral (Quad) alliance/dialogue among New Delhi, Washington, Tokyo and Canberra to face Beijing’s military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region will likely be mothballed.
Backed by the US and Japan, Australia has tried to rejoin the Malabar exercises under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, leader of a Liberal-National coalition government, at least with observer status. The former Labor government of Kevin Rudd withdrew the country from the multilateral drills in 2008, supposedly in response to pressure from China. Rudd’s move eventually led to the demise of the first attempt to set up an anti-Beijing grouping of Indo-Pacific democracies spearheaded by the US.
Reassuring China
Many view the Indian government’s rejection of the Australian request to participate in the Malabar maneuvers as a concession to China, just like its recent decision to freeze relations with the Tibetan leadership in India. New Delhi is apparently trying to thaw the ice with Beijing after last year’s military standoff on the Doklam Plateau at the tri-junction border with Bhutan.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei province, last Friday and Saturday. The pair agreed on improving military communication to prevent border incidents, and supporting a free and open global trading system.
Relations between Australia and China have worsened during the Turnbull tenure. The Australian prime minister has repeatedly accused Beijing of interfering in the country’s domestic affairs. To counter alleged Chinese meddling, Turnbull has advanced a controversial law to ban foreign political donations to Australian political parties and entities linked to them.
Additionally, Canberra is supporting Washington’s so-called freedom of navigation and overflight operations in the South China Sea, aimed at pushing back against Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims in this body of water. In this respect, tension between Australia and China escalated a couple of weeks ago, when three Australian warships were confronted in the disputed area by China’s PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Navy while they were heading for Vietnam, media reports said.
As Swaran Singh, a professor at the school of international studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, put it to Asia Times, India’s distancing from Australia is likely to be explained as “a response to China’s concerns about the Quad having been revived after a decade and now is expanding its interactions to military dialogue and joint exercises.”
But there is another reason, according to Singh, which refers to the basics of India’s foreign policy. Indeed, he said the recent decision to block Australia’s participation in Malabar 2018 “also seems to be guided by India’s policy of ‘multi-alignment,’ which entails partnering with as many countries as possible without making one relationship hostage to any other.”
New Delhi goes bilateral/trilateral
All that said, and despite India having so far refused to conclude a logistics support agreement with Australia to use each other’s naval facilities (India has a similar cooperation arrangement with the US and France), a proposal that the Australian government put forward in 2015, New Delhi is not indifferent to security collaboration with Canberra altogether.
Military exchanges between Australia and India have been bolstered in the past two years. In June 2017, the two nations held the AUSINDEX naval drills off the Western Australian coast, with a focus on increasing interoperability between their navies. Further, the Indian Air Force will join Australia’s Pitch Black air exercises for the first time in August.
In a way, the Indian government appears to be backtracking on the Quad while keeping bilateral defense ties with Canberra, Tokyo and Washington alive. India is playing a delicate geopolitical game, in which it has to take China’s perceptions into account. And New Delhi’s vetoing of a quadrilateral framework for naval drills with the US, Japan and Australia should be read as a sign of its unwillingness to join a multilateral front that Beijing could perceive as hostile.
In light of its foreign-policy tradition, current Indo-Pacific security dynamics and, more specifically, the precarious state of Sino-Indian relations, bilateral or, at most, trilateral schemes aimed at balancing China’s geopolitical rise remains much more manageable for New Delhi than a Quad-style military alliance.
Beware of using Indian made softwares in Australian institutions.
There has never been a question of India backtracking on Quad as Quad didn’t exist since Kevin the Rude backed out to please his Mandarin-speaking friends. Canberra has been trying of late to join the Malabar fighters. But, first of all, it has to have a national consensus on the issue. That’s where the matter hangs.
This is not a proper decision by India . India has already joined the Quadrilateral Alliance of the US, Japan and Australia. Under such circumstances this decision of not allowing Australia to join the Malabar 2018 Naval Exercise is not proper .
As India has joined the ‘Quadrilateral Alliance ‘ , this decision of India is very much against the very principal of the formation of the ‘QUAD ‘
First, India is not against any country. China is a challenge for India , but its not an enemy of India and both are neighbours. Lets not forget US is natural partner of India. Australia chickened out a few years previously from Malabar exercise and that chickening out was based on export of its minerals and not on principle. So unfortunately it has to wait, until India agrees. But Indians like Australians, there is no doubt about it. But Quad should be seen as a defensive group, as a hedge..and in no way it should be seen as offensive grouping. It will be against the nuanced principles of non-alignment for India. It means India will not be part of the offensive grouping but in case of perceived threat can form or part of defensive groupings. Australia has to do more to convince India. Indians feels money can tempt Australian policy makers and they may again chicken out.
The people taking the decision are far more intelligent and understand situations better than us… Lets wait for the total news report…
seems like india is afraid of china. didn’t know the quad is for offensive purpose but a grouping to contain the chinks. wonder if india will be comfortable with china having harbors in maldives, sri lanka, bangladesh, pakistan. maybe capitulation is the easiest way?
This is hardly surprising. Indians are quintessential cowards and have a knack of bending over to everyone. Right now they are on their knees trying to make China happy.
Rizwan, so easily you forgot your country’s generals were on knees in 1971 iin front of INdian public including all 90000 soldiers from your country in just 2-3-day war. India liberated Bangladesh in the war. So I would suggest be shameful of your history. What bigger shame can be for any country or its people..so by writing falsehood , you will not do away with such a dark blot on your people’s history.
Vk Jain I find it hilarious that Indians trumpet 1971 when Pakistan controls 1/3 of Kashmir. That is what India claims as its own territory. Let that sink in. Pakistan has beaten India and snatched territory from you. Indians are the epitome of shamelessness!
Rizwan Awan your gcountry’s eneral on knees begging while surrendering..is it not a shame? Thank you confirming that Kashmir and all projects on it are Indian. We need people like you in Pakistan. By the way what has Quad to do with you. Its about big countries making plans,so where do y ou fit in all this? Hillarious …and only suggestion have some shame.
Vk Jain if the 1971 debacle was shameful for Pakistan, I wonder why the whole Indian leadership, including its prime minister and its generals, going to the UN on their knees and begging for a ceasefire has never been felt as shameful for the Indians? That is all the more surprising even when they left behind territory that they claimed as their own. And please don’t fool yourself with the perception that I confirmed owneship of Kashmir with India. A basic grasp of the english language should’ve allowed you to understand the difference between "claim" and "ownership". In any case, the one thing I’ve seen is that Indians have made a habit of fooling themselves with their own propaganda to portray an image of some great power. It is hilarious to see that you question my opinion on "super powa India", when the entire govt of India revolves around Pakistan. When Modi speaks to the US congress, he makes oblique remarks against Pakistan. When the BRICS summit happens in Goa, Modi tries and fails to turn it as a declaration against Pakistan. Please stop dreaming of your greatness. You’d be better off if you wake up and felt some shame yourself.
Rizwan Awan sir, you cannot now give explanation .as to what you have admitted. You havd already confirmed. India needs people like you to support India’s claim that are in Pakistan itself. Lets not hate blind you. Take care and use your knowledge to educated kids about sciences. ANyway this forum is about Quad…what it has got to do with your country. You guys keep dreaming of prosperity via CEPC. M ay God bless you.
नीतिन रावल Hahahh. Never trust Cow piss drinkers. Winston Churchill rightly said " I hate Indians.They are beastly people with beastly religion".
Kevin the Stud knew that the Indians can never be Trusted. This report proves him right.