Will US support during India’s crisis strengthen Quad?

Several experts have opined that China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour and US support during India’s COVID-19 crisis will make the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) – a security alliance between India, the US, Japan and Australia – more robust.

Terry Wu for The Epoch Times writes that the growing threat from China would bind the geopolitical factor strongly in the long run and political factors drive the long-term regional outlook. “Our (US-India) relationship is still very strong. If anything, the US support to India has made the partnership even stronger,” said Major Randy Ready at the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), adding that the COVID-19 outbreak had no impact on security operations between the two nations.

Srikanth Kondapalli, professor in Chinese studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said that the second wave of the crisis will play a part in strengthening the Quad cooperation by highlighting the importance of the vaccine partnership that is the centrepiece of the dialogue, The Epoch Times reported.

“The future for the Quad is pretty bright,” said Rahul Mishra, a senior lecturer at the University of Malaya, adding that the four countries are keen in strengthening and institutionalising the initiative, while European powers are also showing interest.

“The Quad should be about how to maintain liberal democracy and the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Tosh Minohara, professor of US-Japan Relations and Diplomatic History at Kobe University.

The professor further said that the US will defend Taiwan as America’s world leadership is at stake and expressed hope of seeing a new US administration in 2025 that is more aggressive on China.

“The Indo-Pacific is the most consequential region for America’s future. It hosts our greatest security challenge, and it remains the priority theater for the United States,” said commander Admiral John C Aquilino at the new USINDOPACOM.

“Although everybody calls it COVID-19, everybody knows that the virus originated from Wuhan,” said Kondapalli.

Under the former President Donald Trump’s administration, ties between Washington and Beijing had deteriorated.