India was already moving towards the quad during Manmohan Singh’s tenure, but the Chinese threat had not been under such sharp focus either to New Delhi or the rest of the world. However since Donald Trump called out China, and Beijing’s move across the Indo-Pacific rattled the world and made the US regard China as a future competitor, the international community’s view on China has changed. President Xi Jinping did nothing to allay these fears and in the summer of 2020, the PLAs incursions into India led to a brief military confrontation between the two Asian neighbours. Any hesitation Indian leaders had on joining the quad, quickly evaporated. The quad, regarded as a formation to contain China has been growing in stature with Joe Biden raising it to a summit-level engagement. The quad is not a military alliance but has all the makings of becoming an important element of the Indo-Pacific defence architecture in future. Since the 2020 Chinese incursions into Ladakh, the threat from China has become a major headache for India. So being a part of the quad was a natural move for the Modi government. The breadth and scope of India-US relations have extended exponentially in every field. Yet India is not just a camp follower of the US, which Modi proved during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite enormous pressure from the US and its NATO allies, India broke rang with the quad by refusing to condemn Russia as the aggressor. Instead, New Delhi did a delicate balancing act, refusing to vote against Russia at the UN and opting to remain neutral. India also provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine. At the same time, New Delhi picked up oil at a cheaper rate from Russia and when criticised for doing so pointed to Europe’s dependence on Russia's oil and gas. India has drawn the red lines when it comes to national interest and has unapologetically gone ahead with what suits its people. All major powers do this but developing nations are often browbeaten into following a powerful country for economic or strategic considerations. India from the early years of independence has chosen to strike its own path.