India graduated from its 'Look East' policy enunciated in 1990s by India's game-changer Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to an active 'Act East' policy since 2014 under current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India's 'Look East' policy was an economic imperative which PM Narasimha Rao synchronised with his authorship of India's economic liberalisation which put India on the track of fast unfettered economic growth.
Reflected in my past writings was the reality that while India's 'Look East' policy was an economic imperative, India's 'Act East' policy under PM Narendra Modi was a "strategic imperative" as India widened its strategic horizons under BJP's second Prime Minister.
India under its 'Act East' policy undertook a well-calibrated strategy of imitating strategic partnerships with Japan, South Korea and Vietnam which were central to security of East Asia or the Western Pacific as an insurance against China's not so benign military rise.
This was in tandem with the growing evolution of the US-India Strategic Partnership which emerged at the turn of the Millennium but matured to substantive proportions only by the second decade of he 21st Century.
The 'QUAD' Concept earlier enunciated by President Brush in the first decade of the 21st Century did not really take-off with United States strategic distractions in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the lingering ambiguities of US policies where 'China Hedging' still persisted.
India therefore quite naturally was also hedging on the QUAD Concept due to its own China Hedging wavering compulsions.
The QUAD Concept was actively revived by the US Trump Administration which soon realised the futility of United States China-policy of giving-in to China on vital issues like the South China Sea.
Political signalling by President Trump of United States hardening of stances on China encouraged the Indian policy establishment to revise its perspectives on the crucial importance of the QUAD Grouping of United States, Japan, India and Australia as an existential counterweight to China's increasing 'Expansionist Impulses'.
India was therefore taking a logical yet graduated step from 'Look East' policy to 'Act East' policy and now as an active participant in the 'QUAD Grouping' of Nations with strategic convergences on the burgeoning China Threat to Indo Pacific Security.
Contextually therefore India in 2020 has not only further reinforced its security relationships with the United States and Japan but this year extended its Strategic Partnership with Australia to include MOUs on security cooperation and more notably 'Logistics Sharing & Access' to each others logistics facilities.
With the above steps including Australia's participation in future EX-MALABAR naval exercises India apparently has become far more integrated in the QUAD Grouping whose overall aim is to jointly ensure the freedom of global commons like the South China Sea which has seen Chinese aggressive expansionism and checkmating China's growing intrusiveness in the Indian Ocean.
In terms of perspectives, it needs to be observed that the QUAD Grouping as a strong potent Naval Grouping is in India's long rang strategic interests and security which should increasingly find more acceptance within India amongst all right thinking Indians who value India's 'Sovereignty' and 'National Honour as India grapples with China's increasing 'Expansionism' especially in relation to Idia's national interests.
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