Quad Is Key To Keeping India ‘Closely Knit’ To US, Says Nicholas Burns

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Former diplomat Nicholas Burns said that the Quad grouping is a way to “cement our relationship” with India and keep the country “closely knit” with Washington on security affairs.

Speaking at an event at the Atlantic Council on October 21, Burns, who is a former US Ambassador to China and a key architect of a stronger India-US relationship, responded to a question from IANS about his analysis of the Trump administration’s policy towards the Quad—a grouping of four democracies: India, Japan, Australia, and the United States.

“The Quad began in 2006-07 when I was the Undersecretary of State. I participated in some Quad meetings, but never at the head of government level. President Trump is the one who made it a head of government exercise in his first term,” he said.

“I know that there was an early meeting this year. Secretary Rubio participated in a Quad foreign minister [meeting]… At some point, I think I’ve heard they want to have a head of government meeting, and I hope they do. It’s a way to cement our relationship—Japan, Australia, the United States, treaty allies, with India—and to keep India closely knit to us on security affairs. So, I do hope it happens,” Burns said.

Trump was scheduled to attend the Quad Summit in November in India, but it is likely to be rescheduled early next year.

The potential rescheduling follows a recent letter from a group of bipartisan US lawmakers urging Trump to attend the Quad Leaders’ Summit in India and other meetings in Asia. Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led the effort. Co-signers included the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, Young Kim and Ami Bera, and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the South and Central Asia Subcommittee, Bill Huizenga and Sydney Kamlager-Dove.

“Our Quad partnership with Australia, Japan, and India serves as the cornerstone for advancing our shared interests in the Indo-Pacific,” the letter stated.

The letter followed an amendment by Democratic Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove in the Department of State Policy Provisions Act, urging Trump to “continue his leadership in the Quad and personally attend the Quad Leaders’ Summit” later this year. The amendment was passed by a voice vote and is now part of the bill that would be taken up for a vote in the House of Representatives soon.

Burns, who is now a Professor at Harvard University, stressed that during his tenure in the George W. Bush presidency, the US realized that the “strategic rise of India in the world was in the national security interests of the United States.” (IANS)