Top Diplomat Terms Ex Oz PM's Knowledge 'Dubious' for Claiming 'India Allergic to Alliances, Won't Put Eggs in 1 Basket'

Manpreet Vohra, India’s High Commissioner to Australia, on Tuesday came down heavily on former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating for his remarks on India in an opinion piece published in The Sunday Morning Herald, a popular Australian daily.

In the piece that was published on Tuesday, Keating claimed that the only objective of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue—or Quad—with the leaders of Australia, Indi and Japan and the US —is to contain China. He also the Indians would “lock themselves in their peninsula” the moment a loud shot was fired.

India, he further claimed, “is having us all on”. “India enjoys the impenetrable wall of the Himalayas on its north and the protection of two oceans around its distended peninsula. And it has a population younger and as large as that of China. It is in an undefeatable position. And no power would try to defeat it – certainly not the Chinese,” Keating wrote.

Vohra, in response, termed Keating’s knowledge of geography and other things as “dubious”. “Dubious knowledge of geography, among other things…” he tweeted on Tuesday morning.

A 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Vohra was appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to Australia in March this year. The senior diplomat’s appointment came at a time when India-Australia ties have been at an upswing and the two countries are stepping up cooperation particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

Keating went on to say that the Quad has only one objective and that is to contain China. “The fact that somehow, the rise of 20 per cent of humanity from abject poverty into something approaching a modern state, is illegitimate – but more than that, by its mere presence, an affront to the United States. It is not that China presents a threat to the United States – something China has never articulated nor delivered – rather, its mere presence represents a challenge to United States pre-eminence,” he wrote.

“How dare a state, as large as the United States, so represent itself, he said. “But not just represent itself, possess the wherewithal to possibly become twice as large. Nowhere is such an eventuality to be found in the American playbook. But this is what the Quad is all about. And, naively, we are in it.”

He then claimed that the Indians would “lock themselves” in their peninsula the moment a loud shot was fired. “The moment a loud shot was fired, the Indians would lock themselves in their peninsula and the Japanese would do what they always do, negotiate from under the table. That would leave the United States and mugs like us carrying a military fight to the Chinese all by our righteous selves.”

He wrote: “India is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The other states include China itself, Russia and Pakistan. India will turn up as large as life to the next meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, after it has turned up, as large as life, for America’s Quad follies in the White House.

India, a founder of the non-aligned movement, has historically been allergic to alliances, having no desire whatsoever to put all its eggs into one basket – something it will never do. But here we are in Australia, at the strategic casino, putting all our money on black, thinking the Indians will turn up for a major showdown with the Chinese. While the Japanese know, in such a fight, China will obliterate them.

But the prophet from the Shire has wandered into all this, unable to comprehend the vector forces of the subtleties at play, when Australian foreign policy had the complete capacity to manage relations between China and the United States, as we have done so successfully for decades before.”

Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.