Outside the Quad

Context:  The increasing closeness with the United States (U.S.) and other like-minded countries, necessitated by the rise of China, have consequences for India’s economic prosperity and technological future 

Phases of India’s Internationalism:

• Phase 1: Idealism in the 1950s: The gap between India’s ambition and the impact was large, and the harsh politics of the Cold War dampened this phase.

• Phase 2:  Radical agenda of a New International Economic Order in the 1970s: India became the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77.

• Phase 3:  Search for a “multipolar” world after the end of the Cold War

• Washington Consensus and rise of globalisation increased engagement with the West due to the collapse of its economic model.
• India turned to Russia and China in search of a “multipolar” world due to the U.S.’s opposition to Kashmir issue. E.g. The BRICS was born with Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa became emblematic of this strategy. 

•  Phase 4:  India’s Multilateralism is marked by three features – viz. Rise in India’s international standing, economic de-globalisation and breakout of the U.S-China rivalry.
• The growing closeness with the U.S (through nuclear deal) and failure of BRICS to check the rise of China pushed India for a ‘Multipolar Asia’ through platforms like QUAD.

Various global moves to deal with an aggressive China:

• QUAD – The Quadrilateral Security Framework: The U.S. is trying to expand it beyond the defence domain while India is trying to create a stable balance of power in Asia through QUAD.

• “QUAD Plus” dialogue initiated by the U.S. by including Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam with QUAD countries to coordinate the responses to the pandemic

• Reducing the reliance on China: India is engaging with Japan and Australia for developing resilient supply chains to reduce the reliance on China. For E.g. 

• The U.S. promotes a “Clean Network” that eliminates untrustworthy vendors from telecom systems, digital apps, trans-oceanic cables and cloud infrastructure. 
• Britain is planning to set up a coalition of 10 democracies for the construction of 5G networks and reduce the current dependence on China.
• France and Canada have invited India to join the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (A.I ) in order to promote responsible development of A.I.

• New League of Democracies: U.S. proposed the expansion of G-7 grouping to include Australia, India, Russia and South Korea 

• Will address a wide range of issues, including the defence of shared values, commerce, corruption, taxation, climate change and digital governance.

• The Five Eyes network: India was recently invited in the Anglo-American alliance for sharing intelligence between the U.S.,  UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Way forward:

• Rewriting the global rules: Since both India’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and U.S.’s  ‘Buy America’ could run counter to the World Trade Organisations (W.T.O.) rules.

Conclusion:  India should cooperate with the U.S. and other like-minded countries for the rearrangement of the global structures that will have major consequences for India’s economic prosperity and technological future.