Quad or BRICS? Through whom India can Aim China

Posted on 11th Mar 2021 by rohit kumar

The US is organizing the first virtual conference of the quad countries on Friday. During this time there will be a virtual meeting of US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.

 

This will be the first meeting of the Indian Prime Minister with the new President after coming to the White House.

 

The Quad was established to increase naval capability and cooperation between member countries against China, but the agenda has expanded in this conference.

 

According to a press release from India's Foreign Ministry, "Leaders will discuss regional and global issues of common interest and exchange ideas on practical areas of cooperation towards maintaining an independent, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region." do."

 

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "The leaders will discuss ongoing efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and explore opportunities for cooperation in ensuring security, goods, and cheap vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region."

 

In this virtual conference Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga, and President of America Joseph R. Biden will join

 

How does India balance with China?

 

Four member countries of the Quad Security Dialogue, ie India, the USA, Australia, and Japan have come together on a platform to stop the impact of rising China. India is an important member of this forum

 

On the other hand, India is quite active in a platform in which India and China play an important role. This is the forum of BRICS in which apart from India and China, Russia, Brazil, and South Africa are also members.

 

The interesting thing is that this year India has got the presidency of BRICS. And India is going to host a BRICS summit in the middle of the year or soon after, in which Chinese President Xi Jinping is very likely to attend.

 

If this happens then it will be a big event of the year because, after the border clash between India and China last year, the relationship between the two countries is in a sour state.

 

The question is that India is involved in the anti-China forum on the one hand and the other side, it is also together with China in another forum. After all, how does India manage to strike a balance in the relationship with China?

 

Former Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, associated with the ThinkTank Gateway House of Foreign Affairs in Mumbai, says India balances in two ways.

 

He says, "The first thing is that BRICS is a 15-year-old organization and there has been a lot of support in it. But this institution was formed at a time when the role of China was good and the relations between China and India were also good." In the last three-four years, and especially in 2020, China's role also became negative and China's relations with India, America, Japan, and Australia also deteriorated, so the Quad was pushed forward. "

 

"The quad was built earlier but it could not run. Its second incarnation came out in 2017. India is involved in the quad because it wants to balance China and this can only happen when the four superpowers of the Indo-Pacific region ( India, America, Japan, and Australia) cooperate and tell China that whatever work is to be done in the region, it will have to be done under the law and if you do not cooperate, then we will do whatever is required of us. "

 

Says Rajiv Bhatia, "A lot of work has been done in BRICS and it is an established institution, it is a more developed institution than the Quad. Now India is going to host the BRICS conference, so in the interest of advancing BRICS also is."

 

BRICS more robust institution?

 

When relations between India and China deteriorated, there was a slight hindrance in taking BRICS forward. But when Russia hosted its virtual conference, the Prime Minister of India and the President of China also joined it.

 

Last month, China's Foreign Ministry said that China wants India to host the BRICS conference, China will join it, but at that time it was not said whether it would be headed by the Chinese President or someone else.

 

So far, if we look at Jinping's participation in the BRICS conference, he has been continuously attending it for the last five years and foreign policy watchers in India say that he is very likely to be involved this time too.

 

While the Quad was founded in 2007, it has not achieved any major success so far. It was reorganized again in the year 2017 and this year is going to be the first summit.

 

India is a neighbor of China and the two countries share a border of 4,500 km. These things are also taken care of in India's policy towards China, so it is not surprising that India is in both BRICS and Quad camps.

 

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had suggested in a tweet that India's inclination should be towards BRICS but this advice does not match India's foreign policies.

 

Foreign Minister's policy towards China

Foreign Minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar recently wrote a book called 'The Indian way: Strategies for an Uncertain World'. In this book, he has written a complete chapter on China, the summary of which is to manage China.

 

Managing and deepening the relationship are two different things. His book came before the India-China border clash. Before this clash, the friendship between the two countries looked strong. But despite this, the Foreign Minister talked about managing the relationship with China.

 

The foreign minister's book itself gives a glimpse of his foreign policies. They prefer smaller groups with fewer countries than institutions with many countries like the United Nations.

 

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said that there is no question of deteriorating the balance in India's involvement in both the Quad and BRICS. Sources said that India wants to sit 'on a high table' on every international stage.

 

"There are many countries in the United Nations where your leadership cannot always flourish. In small groups, India presents itself as an emerging global power, which raises the profile of the country."

 

In recent months, Prime Minister Modi has also emphasized playing an important role for India in global affairs.