A Washington Post article today worries about losing the cohesion (such as it has been) of the U.S.-forced ‘Quad’ grouping of America, India, Australia and Japan, due to India’s refusal to criticize Russia over Ukraine. President Joe Biden in his press conference Feb. 24 had tried a version of the George W. Bush 2001 line of “with us or with the terrorists,” in the form of “any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association.” But, “while Japan, Australia and the United States all unveiled new export bans against Russia, … India demurred, highlighting a glaring fissure in one of the key American partnerships.”
The Post quotes Derek Grossman, RAND Corporation senior defense analyst, that the “Quad grouping could easily fray.” Russia “is clearly breaking the rules-based order, which is the whole reason the Quad got together in the first place. For India to continue to sit on the sidelines…” [Perhaps it’s not just sitting on the sidelines.]
