India has recently been called out for being the weakest link in the revitalised Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a framework for cooperation involving three other democracies in the Indo-Pacific—Australia, Japan and the US. One of the reasons that’s been offered for India’s perceived reticence on the Quad is its ‘reset’ of relations with China after the tense military standoff between the two nations last year at the India–Bhutan–China border junction in Doklam.

Given this, it’s worth asking whether the Wuhan summit between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, which formalised the ‘reset’ in April, was really a game-changer for India in the Indo-Pacific. The answer is ‘no’. The conciliatory change in New Delhi’s attitude to Beijing that started in February is nothing but tactical manoeuvring. India wants to maintain its strategic autonomy by hedging its bets on multiple partners.

Please click here to read the full “India still wary of the Quad amid its own China ‘reset’” article at The Strategist, written by Aakriti Bachhawat, Research Intern at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and Research Assistant at the Griffith Asia Institute.