Many argue that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absence from the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur was a step in the right direction. While that argument remains debatable, the question that arises here is whether, by visiting Malaysia and having even a brief pull-aside with US President Donald Trump, India would have been able to rescue the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, from entering the doldrums. If Modi had attended the ASEAN Summit in the Malaysian capital, he may not have been able to finalise the trade deal with the United States for sure, but he could have at least been able to make an assessment of how serious the current Trump administration is on continuing with the Quad after it showed a renewed vigour in January, when Trump came back to the White House.

When President Trump came back to power in January, the foreign ministers of the Quad group of countries – the United States, India, Australia and Japan – met in Washington DC and decided to hold the next Quad Leaders’ Summit under India’s chairmanship even as they gave a strong signal to China by way of saying that the Quad countries “strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion.” Hours before the meeting, Trump announced on social media, “G2 will be convening shortly.”

While the Quad initiative began on a positive note under Trump 2.0, seven months later, it appears that President Trump is not only disinterested in the Quad but is also willing to go to great lengths to appease China and its President Xi Jinping. In his relentless pursuit of trade deals, particularly with China, Trump has referred to Xi as the........

© ABP Live