Bangladesh, Nov. 29 -- The new India–France defense pact marks a quiet shift in the Indo-Pacific. Framed as joint research and development (R&D), aimed at co-producing cutting-edge munitions and tech, it actually reflects Indias move away from empty US promises toward real French technology, thereby diluting the Quads “Asian NATO” logic and echoing Paris parallel resistance to NATOs Indo-Pacific push. While Trumps Washington welcomes the burden-sharing, the deal also accelerates a turn toward flexible partnerships and away from bloc discipline — a quiet de-NATOization of the Quad, so to speak.

The timing, in fact, could not be more pointed. Expert Usman Haider laid it out in The Diplomat thusly: the Indian-French ...