India's lack of opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is becoming difficult to sustain.
In a much more minor matter Gessler from India has commented:
"It's been an eventful few weeks for India-Australia relations.
The biggest news was probably the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (called Economic Cooperation & Trade Agreement or ECTA. "Ecta/Ekta" meaning Unity in the Hindi language), while usually deals like this would be solely relegated to issues of trade & economy, this FTA also has a Strategic tinge to it - as summarized in some detail here in this Financial Express article by Harsh V. Pant, VP of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India's premier strategic think-tank:
In addition, there have also been several MoUs signed for the setting up of Critical Mineral supply chains (especially Lithium), where Australia is a huge supplier of the materials and India has a growing requirement. I'd imagine these deals are following up on the coattails of objectives set by the QUAD summit in September 2021."
COMMENT
India joined the QUAD on the basis that the near enemies (US, Australia, Japan) of my enemy (China) are my friends.
But now those 3 QUAD members need to decide whether the friend (India) of our near enemy (Russia) is now not our friend.
Since February 2022 India's lack of criticism of Russian aggression towards Ukraine seems to be returning India to India's previous pro-Russian pseudo "non-aligned" status. With India economically supporting expansionist Russia, India's ECTA with Australia to some extent maintains ambivalent relations.
Wiki advises:
"In March 2022, when Western nations imposed economic sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of the Ukraine, India and Russia explored alternative payment system due to exclusion of most Russian banks from SWIFT and Visa/Mastercard. Officials from both countries were discussing accepting RuPay and MIR cards. The Reserve Bank of India and the Bank of Russia seek to facilitate financial transactions through an independent rupee-ruble exchange system, particularly for the purchase of sunflower oil by India, and the export of petroleum products and fertilizers by the Russian Federation. India also depends crucially on Russia for its defence equipment and parts. Additionally, Indian Oil Corp. had reportedly reached a deal to buy 3 million barrels of oil from Russia’s Rosneft at a 20% discount to global prices.[58][59]"
It remains to be seen whether a Russia aligned India could be ejected from the QUAD.