India joins Quad ranks on Putin

With previously unwilling India joining in, last week’s condemnation by Quad Dialogue foreign ministers, including Penny Wong, at their summit in New Delhi of Vladimir Putin’s monstrous assault on Ukraine could not be more significant. Since the war started a year ago, India, the world’s most populous democracy, which has longstanding military ties to Moscow, has been under intense pressure to condemn Mr Putin’s lawless rampage. On Friday, its Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, finally did that. He joined Senator Wong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in emphasising the need for “peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law” and “respect (for the) sovereignty (and) territorial integrity” of the country – all of which are being shamelessly trampled over by Mr Putin. Given the immense diplomatic clout India carries, especially among developing countries, the importance of New Delhi finally abandoning what was always going to be an unsustainable attempt to maintain neutrality amid the appalling human rights abuses being committed in Ukraine is of major importance. It is also significant it has done so in the context of its membership of the Quad, which, since its foundation, has been focused entirely on the security challenges posed to the Indo-Pacific’s democracies by Mr Putin’s “no limits” ally, Chinese ruler Xi Jinping.

China’s aggression in our region remains rightly the Quad’s main focus. Thankfully, however, the Quad ministers did better than G20 foreign ministers did at their summit in New Delhi last Thursday when, meeting under Mr Jaishankar’s chairmanship, they feebly allowed themselves to be monstered by Russia and China into not even issuing the usual post-summit communique.

After being so reticent for so long to do so, India deserves praise for finally joining its democratic partners in speaking out against Mr Putin’s lawless aggression. It is the great issue of our times. Hopefully, India has finally learned the lesson conveyed by the way Russia’s buffoonish Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, was jeered and laughed at by an audience in New Delhi last week when he absurdly tried to claim his country was trying to “stop a war” against it “launched by Ukraine”. The estimable democracy India is has been betrayed by its failure to speak out sooner against Mr Putin’s monstrous onslaught in flagrant defiance of every principle of the UN Charter.