Top Biden administration officials spent the past week being feted by allies in Tokyo and Seoul, rubbing shoulders, bumping elbows, and holding press conference after press conference in front of neatly pressed American, Japanese, and South Korean flags.
But India, the next stop on U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s itinerary, won’t be getting—or giving—the exact same treatment. There’s no “2+2” meeting on the schedule: Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already left the trip for a tense showdown with Chinese officials in Alaska. And New Delhi is a “strategic partner”—not on the same footing as Washington’s full-fledged treaty allies in Northeast Asia.
