India should play an active role in QUAD, states former US Deputy Secretary of State Alice Wells

Washington: Former US Deputy Secretary of State, Alice Wells, advised that India should play a more active role in QUAD, which has Australia and Japan along with the United States as members. Wells has worked as a chief for south and central Asia. Wells warned that it would not be advisable to waste time in BRIC and IRC meetings, instead of increasing cooperation with partner countries with shared values and interests. The statement made by Wells is demanding that India takes a clearer position against China. The aggressive decisions taken by the Indian government against China are showing that the Indian stance against China is becoming more decisive.

Against the background of the conflict in the Galwan Valley, India has started to take a more aggressive stand against China. India has sternly told China, during the meetings held following the Galwan conflict, that the fault lies with China and China cannot be trusted anymore. India has increased the deployment on the Chinese border and has started preparations to deliver an economic jolt to China. India has issued a clear warning, even on the political level, that China should be prepared for severe repercussions if China shows any further aggression.

While the aggressive changes are becoming apparent in the Indian attitude towards China, the advice given by former US Deputy Secretary of State Alice Wells becomes significant. Wells, while noting her reaction to an article published in one of the US dailies, said that India should widen the scope of its policies against China, even on the international level. She referred to QAUD for this.

The informal meeting held between four countries in 2007 on an initiative taken by Japan was referred to as QUAD. The group, which included India, the United States, Japan and Australia was not very active initially. But in 2017, an important meeting of the heads of State of the QUAD member countries was held, against the background of the ASEAN conference. It was unanimously decided in the meeting that QUAD should be activated to stop the increasing Chinese activities in the South China Sea. Thereafter, in the last three years, the group is emerging as a major adversary for China, and China also has severely criticised the group.

Despite this, the United States believes that the Indian contribution in QUAD is much lesser than Japan and Australia. India is a part of the Chinese ventures to counter the United States. Wells pointed out that the importance attached by India to the Chinese ventures, despite being a member in QUAD, has not gone down well with the United States. Wells warned India that the Indian policies of this nature, at a time when the US leadership has taken an open conflict with China, become contradictory.

Even in the past, Wells has made suggestive statements regarding the Chinese threat and Indian cooperation. Wells had said in the last month that like-minded countries coming together against China in the new reformed economic scenario, since the second world war, becomes significant. At the same time, Wells had made a special mention of the QUAD initiative by Japan, the United States, India and Australia. Wells had indicated that China is a global threat, saying that the Chinese border disputes, with all its neighbours, underline the Chinese threat.

Although China is a neighbour and the biggest trading partner of India, the Chinese activities in the last few years besmirch both relations of a neighbour and a trading partner. Chinese ruling communist government is making swift moves to achieve its expansionist ambitions. While doing this, international rules and regulations are trampled regularly, and democratic values are suppressed.

China has started behaving arbitrarily, based on its economic and military might. The United States has come forward to stop this Chinese influence, adopting an open stand of conflict. The statements made by Wells indicate that against this background, India should support the United States, and for that, India should become more active in the conflict against China.