WORLD

China on Monday said the four-member Quad “will end up nowhere” if it does not abandon its ideological bias and cold war mentality, underscoring its opposition to the bloc. Beijing described the Quad, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, as a clique based on an ideology which, it said, “detrimental to the international order”.

The Quad, comprising India, the US, Australia, and Japan, has been revitalised following the grouping’s first and high-profile top leader-level online summit last Friday.

The summit, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison, US President Joe Biden and Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, was closely monitored and critiqued by Beijing. The consensus in Beijing was that the four countries came together to counter China’s increasing influence and muscle-flexing in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union crashed to its worst results in two regional elections since World War II, as voters vented their frustration over the government’s handling of the pandemic and the slow pace of vaccinations.

With Merkel’s exit looming after September’s national election, support for the CDU slumped by four points to 23% in the western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg compared with the last election in 2016, an exit poll from public broadcaster ARD showed. The Greens, led by popular state premier Winfried Kretschmann, cemented their decade-long hold on power with a third straight victory, winning 31%, 0.7 points more than five years ago.

In neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate, the CDU scored 26%, also finishing in second place but shedding 5.8 points compared with 2016. The Social Democrats, who rule the state in coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, lost ground but remained the strongest party on 34.5%, 1.7 points down on 2016.

Deepening of the Comprehensive Global Strategic partnership, military trade, Indo-Pacific, the Quad, as well as multilateral military drills are some of the major issues that will be the focus of talks when the new US Secretary of Defence Lloyd J Austin comes later this month.

The India-US military trade is expected to touch $ 25 billion soon. Both countries share a vision of free and open Indo-Pacific. As has been reported, in 2016, the US had designated India as a Major Defence Partner, and this was then in 2018 elevated to Strategic Trade Authorisation tier 1 status.

India will have a license-free access to an entire range of military and dual-use technologies which have been regulated by the US Department of Commerce.

Prince William on Thursday defended Britain’s royal family against accusations of racism made by his brother Prince Harry and sister-in-law Meghan, saying the royals are “very much not a racist family.”

In comments made during a visit to an east London school, William became the first royal to directly address the explosive interview broadcast Sunday in the U.S. that his brother and the Duchess of Sussex gave to Oprah Winfrey.

Buckingham Palace’s sought to respond to Harry and Meghan’s allegations of racism and mistreatment in a 61-word statement, but it has failed to quell the controversy.

The Defense Secretary of United States Lloyd Autin will be on a visit to India from March 19 to 21 as part of his first overseas travel. This is the first in-person visit of any administrator of President Joe Biden to India since he took charge as the new US President two months ago. 

Announcing his visit on twitter, the US defence secretary said, "I’ll then travel to India to meet with my counterpart, Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh , and other senior national security leaders to discuss deepening the US-India Major Defense Partnership and advancing cooperation between our countries."