QUAD enters consolidation stage, expect decisive steps in Delaware
The QUAD grouping has reached a consolidation stage and four leaders will take decisive steps at Delaware today to uphold international law and secure the Indo-Pacific,” said a senior official familiar with the matter.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaches Wilmington, he will be the senior most in the QUAD with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on their way out and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese going into elections soon. After holding dialogues with two US Presidents, two Australian PMs and two Japanese PMs, PM Modi will be starting his third term as leader of India.
The QUAD summit is being held at times of global uncertainty with Israel taking on the Iranian proxy Hezbollah group in Lebanon while the war in Gaza is still on with no prospects of a ceasefire. The Ukraine conflict is poised to step up with the Anglo-Saxon alliance seriously considering supply of long range missiles to Kyiv to take the war into Russia. The Ukraine use of long range missiles against Russia will push President Vladimir Putin into retaliation that may go beyond Ukraine and spark off a larger conflict.
While Middle-East and Central Europe are up in flames, China is showing aggression in the South China Sea against the Philippines and the PLA Navy is entering the exclusive economic zone of Japan with a show of force using its aircraft carrier task force.
While PM Modi will hold bilateral dialogue with all the QUAD leaders at Delaware during his whistle stop tour to the US, External Affairs Minister will move to Washington after addressing the UN General Assembly on September 28. Apart from holding dialogues with his numerous counterparts in New York on the side-lines of the UNGA, Minister Jaishankar will meet his US counterpart Anthony Blinken in Washington to take the bilateral relationship forward as per directions of the top leaders.
Even though the US is headed towards a Presidential election in November, India is ready to deal with whosoever occupies the White House next January as there is strong bipartisan consensus on the relations.
The only minor irritant in the relations is Department of Justice support to Khalistani terrorist G S Pannun who is trying the muddy the waters by accusing the Indian government and its top officials in US Federal Court of allegedly trying to murder him based on unverified and unsubstantiated charges. This is despite the fact that Pannun himself has been threatening the Indian leadership and trying to radicalize Sikh youth against India.