Bangkok: India’s coronavirus response undermines its coalition with America, Japan and Australia to resist China A man is consoled by his relative as he sees the body of his father, who died from complications related to coronavirus, in New Delhi India has failed to secure enough vaccines of its own citizens, let alone supply the rest of the world.
Amy Kazmin in know about every new Coronavirus story India’s catastrophic Covid-19 wave has not only battered its ambitions to become the “pharmacy of the world”, but it has also undermined a US plan for New Delhi to play a leading role in countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
President Joe Biden sees a reinvigorated “Quad”, a diplomatic and security initiative consisting of the US, India, Japan and Australia, as an integral part of his strategy to resist Chinese economic and military aggression.
But India’s coronavirus crisis and subsequent vaccine export ban have overshadowed the quartet’s first attempt to prove it can provide practical help to the region and is not just an anti-China military alliance. Instead, India’s failure has created an opportunity that China is exploiting. “The pandemic is a reality check — there is no way around it — and it has laid bare the structural deficiencies of the Indian state in the crudest way we have ever seen,” said Constantino Xavier at New Delhi’s Centre for Social and Economic Progress, a think-tank. Web Desk
