Raksha Anirveda
analysis
Spectre Of The Cold War Past The increasing defence cooperation between Japan and Australia points to a new imperative for New Delhi – shedding its non-alignment mentality By Pranay K Shome
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iplomacy is said to be a dynamic phenomenon that changes almost daily depending on internal and external contexts and circumstances. But in some cases the policies of the past that have become a relic at present continue to dictate contemporary actions. And this seems to be exactly the case with India. Recently Japan and Australia, members of the Quadrilateral Security grouping-cum-dialogue, have signed a ‘historic’ pact between the respective armed forces of both the countries with an eye on China, which has become increasingly assertive regarding its strategic and territorial claims not only in the Indo-Pacific region but also in its backyard – the South China Sea region.
This defence cooperation has prompted an angry response from Beijing, which dismissed this pact as an egregious attempt to disturb regional peace and security. However, one important question that looms large is for the third
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member of the grouping – India. Is New Delhi ready to continue with its old stand of not entangling military alliances that can upend the already fraught ties with the dragon and can undermine its long stated non-aligned diplomacy?
Changing Stance Times have changed, but the adversaries remain the same and are more powerful. For New Delhi, currently China, Pakistan and Turkey are the principal threats on its diplomatic and military radar. In such a context, it is high time that India takes a game changing decision – shedding its reticence on entangling in alliances that are militaristic in nature and that can promote an arms race of sorts. Japan, which has a pacifist constitution that renounces war as a means of conducting statecraft has been forced because of the burgeoning Chinese threat to increase its defence budget to its highest ever. Australia with which China has robust trade ties has not shied away from forging the AUKUS pact again due to the same belligerent threat from the dragon. So what is stopping India, which has been locked in a bitter armed standoff with China at its northern border, from changing its militarydiplomatic policy? It should have been changed when China brought in its new land border law and changed the names of several villages in Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as a part of South Tibet. Hence the time is ripe. India should strike the rod when it’s hot. Therefore shedding the non-alignment baggage by declaring explicitly that India seeks to militarise the Quad is the first logical step that the mandarins of Indian diplomacy and foreign policy should do.
