India's embrace of the Quad

Malabar naval exercises confirm the grouping is at the core of its Indo-pacific strategy

One should thank the Chinese for helping India to “overcome the hesitations of history” and put the Quad at the centre of its Indo-Pacific strategy. China’s aggressive military manoeuvres in eastern Ladakh encouraged India to shed its inhibitions about institutionalising the coalition of India, Australia, Japan and the US, which form the Quad.

The Quad foreign ministers will now meet annually. India’s security cooperation with the four countries is now underpinned by a series of bilateral logistics, communications and intelligence-sharing arrangements, the last and most important of which is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Cooperation (BECA) concluded with the US last