The government of India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, indicated that India will not participate in the plan for a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), known as “Quads”.

The Quads had been conceived by the Bush Jr Administration. Its objective was to ally Japan, Australia and India to contain the Chinese influence in the Pacific. It failed in 2011, just after President Xi announced his plan for the “New Silk Route”. At this time, Australia thought it made more sense to cooperate with the People’s Republic of China. The “Quads” has resurged in 2017, with the change of government in Canberra (Australia).

On 24 February 2018, the current Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, went to the White House to make out the case for the Quads. On May 30, the US Secretary for Defence, Jim Mattis, renamed the North American Command of the Pacific as “US IndoPaCom” suggesting a possible agreement with India.

In the meantime, the Indian plans for establishing maritime bases in the Pacific don’t appear to be working. Pursuing realism, New Delhi appears to be abandoning the anti-Chinese rhetoric of the Hindu Nationalists of the BJP (Modi’s party) and to be reconnecting themselves to the strategy of non-alignment defended by the party of the Congress (Opposition).

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Anoosha Boralessa