Say Good Bye to QUAD
Say Hello to AUKUS
Courtesy- Joseph Biden, Democrat.
What does AUKUS have to do with quad?
AUKUS is a pact formed with single-point agenda of bringing nascent Australian military capabilities up to speed, so that they (or any future government of their's) don't buckle under Chinese pressure. The capabilities enabled by diesel sub like Shortfin (which did not even have AIP) are insufficient to counter PLAN SSNs in IOR/Pacific.
So US-UK have decided to take it upon themselves to see to it that their treaty ally doesn't bungle things up any further.
Has nothing to do with India.
We already have our own, fairly mature nuclear submarine program and have no desire to buy/rent that tech from West (whatever help we needed to get things going we already got from Russia decades ago, when relations with West weren't good).
I don't understand why even so-called analysts are trying to spin this as "INDIA LEFT OUT!!!"...and Leftist clowns (to include, unfortunately, Gen. HS Panag) are following suite.
Laughable!
EDIT: As of why Japan not included (despite being treaty ally) - take a look at a map. While its likely JMSDF would also want SSNs in future, with their advanced AIP & LIB tech, plus given their operating distances & proximity to China, SSN are far less critical for Japan than for Aus.