U.S., India Have Been Too Cautious in Building Quad, Biegun Says
The U.S. and India have been “too cautious” about China’s reaction to developing their informal grouping, Stephen Biegun said.
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and India have been “too cautious” about China’s reaction to developing their informal grouping with Japan and Australia, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said.
The grouping -- known as the Quad -- is not intended to be exclusive and any country seeking a free and open Indo-Pacific could be a part of it, Biegun said in a speech in New Delhi. He is in India as part of preparations ahead of visits by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper for ministerial meetings planned later this month.
India and the U.S. along with Japan and Australia need to formalize ties and work bilaterally and with other democratic nations in the region in more regular and systematic ways “that offer benefits to our nations’ security,” Biegun said, without directly referring to China.
The U.S. can help by “strengthening India’s ability to defend itself and by promoting interoperability” among militaries, Biegun said. The 2+2 ministerial meeting between Pompeo and India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and their defense counterparts comes at a time when India is engaged in its worst border conflict with China since 1962.
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