Paul Keating's strawman argument on India doesn't hold up

Having accused Scott Morrison of turning Australia’s back on Asia and retreating to the Anglosphere in forming AUKUS, former prime minister Paul Keating has launched another broadside at the government’s collective efforts to mobilise democracies against a rising authoritarian China. This time the Quad security dialogue is in his sights. On the basis that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, his main argument in denigrating the grouping is scepticism of India’s commitment if the going gets tough. As he puts it, “[t]he moment a loud shot was fired, the Indians would lock themselves in their peninsula … leav[ing] the United States and mugs like us carrying a military fight to the Chinese all by our righteous selves”.