New Delhi does not consider the newly re-established quadrilateral format of U.S.-Japan-India-Australia a part of its “Indo-Pacific” region policy, India’s Ambassador to Russia Pankaj Saran has said.
The senior diplomat, instead, suggested that India would like to engage more closely with Russia in the Indo-Pacific region as well.
The comments, published on Friday, come a day a meeting of officials of the four countries — called the “Quad” ended in Singapore — and indicate that India’s maritime partnerships would not be restricted to the Quad formation with the U.S. and its allies.
Mr. Saran will soon take charge as Deputy National Security Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office, making his remarks particularly significant, as is the timing, just ahead of Mr. Modi’s visit to Qingdao in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, where he will have meetings with Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin.
PM Modi’s concept
In an interview to the Russian TASS news agency — made available by the Indian Embassy — Mr. Saran said,
“The Quadrilateral format of U.S.-Japan-India-Australia is one of the many multilateral dialogues in the region, and not directed against any country. It is not part of the Indo-Pacific region concept outlined by Prime Minister Modi in Shangri La.”
“It is important that the Indo-Pacific Region (IPR) and Quad format are not confused with each other. The Indian view of IPR is positive — this is an open and inclusive arrangement, which is not directed against any country nor intended to contain any country,” he added, referring to the general belief that the Quad arrangement came together in November 2017 in an effort to contain China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea, and forays in India’s neighbourhood.
However, given improved relations with China in the last few months, and the Wuhan Summit, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to China for an informal meeting with President Xi Jinping, the government has been seen as less active in promoting the Quad, also declining a request from Australia to join the ongoing Malabar naval exercises with the other three Quad members.
On Thursday, at the end of the second Quad meeting, attended by joint secretary level officials, all four countries issued separate but similar statements.
Amongst the divergences were lines committing the Quad to “safeguarding and strengthening” the Indo-Pacific region that were issued by U.S., Australia and Japan, while the phrase was absent in the Indian statement. India also spoke of its Indo-Pacific policy in “plurilateral formats”, which the others did not.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Shangri-La dialogue June 1 as well as what he called the “historic” informal summit with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Mr. Saran said, “expanding (the) partnership with Russia is an integral part of our Indo-Pacific policy...Prime Minister (Modi) also noted that the maturity of India’s special and privileged strategic partnership with Russia was a measure of India’s strategic autonomy.”