Kyiv situation after shelling

It is to be expected that India too is being urged in various ways to take a tougher stand against Russia. Meanwhile, China’s likening of the Quad to an Asian Nato, which could get the region off course and “ultimately push the Asia-Pacific over the course of the abyss”, is counter-intuitively a reminder of why India needs the Quad. The threat of Chinese expansionism is very much in our face since the Galwan clash.

Read also: India’s position on Russia acceptable to Quad, won’t affect cooperation, says Australia

So it is good for India that at this point, as the Australian high commissioner Barry O’Farrell said on Sunday, the Quad countries accept India’s position that it has a very different bilateral relationship with Russia than the rest. Indeed Quad countries’ cooperation with India is proceeding apace on other fronts. But India’s balancing act will get tougher the longer Ukraine, its cities and people are bombed by Russia. India has to be nimble in responding to the changing geopolitical sands.