US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to India revealed strong convergence between the oldest and largest democracies on Quad, China, and Indo-Pacific, shifting of American position closer to New Delhi’s viewpoint on Afghanistan over Taliban offensive and Washington’s has shed its reticence over the exiled 14^th Dalai Lama.

• Blinken’s conversations with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wed were largely centered on the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan accompanied with brutality on innocent citizens and increasing Chinese belligerence in its pursuit to become the numero uno in the world.
• While Blinken’s official discussions with Indian leadership were extensive on conflict situations all over the globe, the Secretary of State stated that Afghanistan yet again will be treated as a pariah state if the Taliban seize power by force instead of negotiated political settlement will force the Sunni fundamentalists and their handlers to rethink.
• Just as Jaishankar’s public dismissal of China’s fears over Quad as unreasonable will push Beijing to recalibrate its aggression, which has now reached a point of being overbearing to the democratic world. The fact is that China has virtually encircled India by forging ties with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Nepal through economic leverage, but it accuses India of joining the anti-China camp led by the US.
• It is now 14 months since the PLA transgressed into East Ladakh intending to unilaterally change the status quo on the ground forcing India to respond and deploy an equal number of troops as the adversary along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
• India is not the only one at the receiving end of Chinese aggression, but other Quad powers have also been singled out by Beijing activating land, sea, or trade disputes.
• While China has firewalled its citizens from social media, its propaganda machine and information warfare have gone into an overdrive attacking the Quad partners and exploiting the fault-lines within the security grouping.
• Beijing’s all-weather client state Pakistanis again playing the double game by sending a Taliban delegation headed by Mullah Baradar to China and sending the DG (ISI) Lt General Faiz Hameed and Pakistan NSA Moeed Yusuf to Washington perhaps to assure the Biden administration that Taliban will deliver on its commitments and extract leverage for beleaguered PM Imran Khan on economy and FATF.
• Bilaterally both India and the US are on a strong wicket as could be seen from the bonhomie between the two foreign ministers with the Biden administration ready to part with high defense and other technologies to New Delhi as a major defense ally. The openness with which both Indian and US interlocutors exchange notes over matters of concern also show the build-up of trust in the bilateral relationship.
• The joining of hands for vaccine production and building resilient global supply chains, which are not dependent only on one country, are part of India-US growing convergence. These initiatives will only be strengthened when Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes to Washington to attend the Quad summit in Oct.
• Secy Blinken met with Dalai Lama’s representative Ngodup Dongchung separately on Tue at a New Delhi hotel is an indicator that the US is not squeamish about the exiled Tibetan community and their Buddhist leadership.
• Reacting to the meeting, Chinese State Media, Global Times published an op-ed ‘Dangerous path’ for New Delhi to lean on Washington, Blinken’s trip exposes US’ two-faced China policy: expert. “….while playing the ‘Tibet card’ by meeting a representative from the so-called Tibetan government-in-exile”. 
• Reuters reported, describing it as the most significant contact with the Tibetan government-in-exile since the Dalai Lama met then-president Barack Obama in Washington in 2016.