‘For peace along border, one must adhere to agreements’
Democrats — each very different from the other. Yet, each raised the level of relationship with India further. Each President has developed on the legacy of the previous one when it comes to India. And if you follow the debates in the US now, you will find many differences between the competing candidates, but India is a common point. There are many other policies in which the candidates criticise each other. But that is not happening when it comes to India. I actually believe that India has bipartisan, or in a sense non-partisan, support in American politics. Our footprint is very wide and so is our acceptability. Different sets of politicians who disagree on many things agree on India. And I think that is a very good place to be. addressed. This is a very, very unique situation. There is no country that uses cross border terrorism in such a prolific and open way. And not just against India. We must have the self-confidence to tell that country that this cannot be the basis for conduct of relations.
When the world changes, you will not only have new acronyms but new concepts. QUAD is one of the plurilaterals, a working arrangement, a convergence. The Cold War was a world of agreements, a Western Bloc which like the opposing Soviet Bloc agreed amongst themselves. Today, your interests will coincide with others on certain issues. So, the overlaps are issue based and therefore, you would have convergences with different powers. QUAD reflects the convergence of participating countries in areas like maritime security, connectivity and counterterrorism. It is part of a future world. Even though people are attributing a novelty to this, there is another acronym called RIC (Russia, India and China) going on for 20 years. BRICS is yet another one. They too are plurilateral and issue based.