Quad Must Join U.S., NATO In Battling Threats vs Ukraine: Ex-Envoy

The United States should broaden its efforts to restrain Russia from seizing Ukrainian territory by looking for support beyond Europe and NATO to its Indo-Pacific partners in the Quad, a four-state group composed of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, former US ambassador to India Kenneth I. Juster said in a Foreign Policy article.

Photo Insert: Naval vessels from the United States, Australia, Japan, and India take part in the Malabar Exercise in 2020.

This is especially important because China is closely monitoring the international response to Russia’s aggression and will calibrate its behavior in Asia accordingly. The potential Russian invasion of Ukraine is one of the Biden administration’s most acute foreign policy challenges.

US intelligence warns Russia is planning an offensive against Ukraine as soon as early next year involving as many as 175,000 troops.

Such action would violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and undermine fundamental norms of international law as well as shatter the 1994 Budapest Agreement in which the US, UK, and Russia guaranteed the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for disposing 1,900 nuclear warheads of the former Soviet Union.

US President Joe Biden expressed “deep concern” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned the US and its allies “would respond with strong economic and other measures” if Russia takes military action.

Additionally, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with NATO foreign ministers to emphasize the importance of alliance unity in bolstering Ukraine against Russian aggression.

What has been left unsaid is the deployment of US troops to train Ukrainian soldiers, the delivery of Javelin missiles, troop transports, patrol ships, and infantry weapons for the use of Ukraine against a possible Russian invasion.

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