NEW DELHI—The United States, India, Australia, and Japan came together for the first QUAD meeting virtually on March 12, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is in India to boost strategic ties and to address common goals in the Indo-Pacific. The events have inspired a strong rhetorical push back from China, Russian, and Pakistan. Austin, who arrived in India on Friday on a three-day visit, called the Indo-U.S. partnership a “central pillar” of the American policy for the Indo-Pacific. In a statement, the Defense Department talked about India and United States taking joint efforts to grow a “partnership to protect the Indo-Pacific.”  Talk of China dominated both the Quad Summit and Austin’s New Delhi visit. Without directly naming China, Austin told a group of reporters traveling with him to India: “I think working together with like-minded countries who have shared interests is the way you check any aggression in …