Don’t push Quad too fast, Australia backs India

Ahead of the latest biennial iteration of India-Australia AUSINDEX naval exercise, Australia has sounded a cautionary note on the Quad consultative mechanism involving India, Japan and the US apart from Australia. Australian diplomatic sources here said pushing the Quad ``too forward and too fast’’ could diminish returns from bilateral and multilateral engagements among the countries involved.

The remark is a vindication of India’s position that the Quad mechanism be held at the level of officials only despite pressure from the US to upgrade it to the ministerial level. After a decade-long interregnum, Quad was revived in 2017 but has so far remained limited to diplomatic consultations with India reluctant to hold regular military contacts among the 4 ``like-minded’’ democracies in the Indo-Pacific.

``We need to give time and space to Quad for it to evolve,’’ said an Australian diplomatic source on the condition of anonymity.

India has not been in favour of upgrading Quad, or having regular quadrilateral military exchanges, for the fear of annoying China which sees Quad as an instrument of containment. The government has worked overtime to improve relations with China since the 2017 Doklam standoff and so far, even after China yet again blocked designation of Pakistan based terrorist Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, there is no indication of any review of India’s position on relations with Beijing.

Australian sources also said that India’s reluctance to involve Australia in the trilateral Malabar exercise, which India carries out with the US and Japan, will not act as an impediment to security and maritime cooperation between the 2 countries.

``That Australia is not participating in the Malabar distracts attention from a lot that is happening bilaterally between the 2 countries. We are already participating in bilateral and multilateral exercises and the AUSINDEX this year will see the largest deployment of Australian navy personnel in the region since India’s independence,’’ said a source.

The US Indo-Pacific Command head, Admiral Phil Davidson, was recently quoted as having said that Quad could be shelved for now. A Pentagon spokesperson clarified the next day though that Quad will continue to meet to ``coordinate our respective visions of and efforts in the Indo-Pacific region’’. The spokesperson added that Davidson only meant regular and formal meetings of ``military leaders’’ when he made his remark. Davidson had quoted Indian navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba as having ``made it quite clear that there wasn't an immediate potential for a quad."

The AUSINDEX this year will be held as a part of Australia’s Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 which will see Australia conducting naval exercises with 7 countries in south and southeast Asia apparently to increase its profile as a security provider in the Indian Ocean.

The AUSINDEX 2019 will see participation of long-range frigate HMAS Parramatta capable of air defence, surface and undersea warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. Also participating will be HMAS Newcastle, one of Royal Australian Navy’s four Adelaide Class Guided Missile Frigates (FFG), which can counter simultaneous threats from aircraft, surface vessels and submarines.

 timesofindia