NEW DELHI — Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave India’s democracy his stamp of approval following a recent scandal involving the alleged surveillance of journalists, threading a needle between President Joe Biden’s pledge to champion human rights and a long-term goal to secure India’s assistance in countering threats from China.
“We view Indian democracy as a force for good in defense of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday. “We also recognize that every democracy, starting with our own, is a work in progress. And when we discuss these issues, I certainly do it from a starting point of humility. We see the challenges that our own democracy has faced in the past and faces today.”
That light-touch approach followed an extensive set of closed-door meetings with senior Indian officials on hot-button foreign policy topics ranging from the pandemic to the ramifications of America’s withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan. The alignment between strategists in Washington and New Delhi was underscored by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who made a point of dismissing China’s complaints about India’s participation in the so-called Quad alongside the United States, Japan, and Australia.
“Any parameter you use, it’s very visible that India has interests in the Indo-Pacific,” Jaishankar replied during a press conference with Blinken when asked to respond to Chinese officials who regard the Quad as a nascent NATO-style bloc for the region. “I think people need to get over the idea that somehow other countries doing things is directed against them.”
BIDEN AND THREE WORLD LEADERS REAFFIRM COMMITMENT TO INDO-PACIFIC REGION
Left unstated was the fact that the Quad countries agree that China’s assertive foreign policy represents a threat to those interests. Chinese officials have denounced the Quad as a sign of “the Cold War mentality of the U.S.,” but Jaishankar sharpened his point by implying that such complaints are hypocritical, given a long-standing desire to see Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa coordinate to offset Western economic clout.
“For groups of countries to work together is not strange; this is the history of international relations,” Jaishankar said. “Groups of countries work together in the same region … or they sometimes work together where they can find intersections of interests. The BRICS is one such example.”
Blinken struck a similar note. “What we’re doing together is coordinating, pooling our resources, pooling our thinking, and actively collaborating on a whole variety of issues that have an impact on the lives of our people,” he said.
Biden’s administration has coordinated a major coronavirus vaccine production initiative through the Quad, which U.S. officials hope will provide as many as 1 billion vaccines to people throughout the Indo-Pacific region. “What the Quad is not is a military alliance,” Blinken added. “It is not that.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Indian officials nevertheless have expanded their military cooperation with other members of the Quad, and Jaishankar touted the Quad as key to their long-term strategy in the region.
“Peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific is as important for both of us as democratic stability in Afghanistan,” he said in prepared remarks prior to his meeting with Blinken. “Deepening the Quad as a collaborative platform is in our mutual interest, and we must work together even more closely on key contemporary challenges like terrorism, climate change, pandemics, and resilient supply chains.”
