WASHINGTON – India and China have a “cold war-like” relationship in themaking but New Delhi is unlikely to join something framed as a US-led frontto contain Beijing, a former American diplomat has said.
Alyssa Ayres, who served in the South and Central Asia Bureau of the StateDepartment, made the remarks last week in New York during the launch of herlatest book ‘Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World’.
“It is a cold war-like relationship in the making. India and China have hada strong commercial relationship, but that is increasingly less satisfyingfor India, for many of the same reasons the United States is dissatisfiedwith its trade relationship with China,” she said.
To a question on India-China ties, Ayres, currently a fellow at the Councilon Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank, said that for a while thecommercial relationship between the two countries had relegated theirstrategic competition to the backseat.
“I think India (is) concerned about the increasingly larger presence thatChina is establishing across the Indian Ocean, with a base in Djibouti,”she said.
She added that India may also be concerned over China’s “deep relationship”with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the investments it is making in the twocountries.
Asked about the impression in the US that New Delhi is a “good bet” tocontain Beijing, she said India is unlikely to be part of such aninitiative.
“I think India is going to be highly unlikely to be enlisted in somethingframed as a US-led effort to contain China. That is not what India seeks todo. It seeks to defend its own interests. It seeks to uphold the liberalworld order,” Ayres said.
“India has been a big supporter of global norms, of freedom of navigation.But it also partners with China in many arenas. The Asian InfrastructureInvestment Bank (AIIB), India is the number two capital contributor,” shenoted.
The BRICS organisation went from being just an idea in a research paper tobeing a real institution, she said, adding India is very active with thatand the five-nation grouping has created its own development bank.
“India became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It’shedging its own bets as global governance reform lags on in the20th-century institutions. And so where it has put some of its eggs in thenew organisations basket, it has partnered with China on that front,” Ayressaid.
To another question, she said that there would be a measured response fromIndia if there was a repeat of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.
“Based on what we saw with the surgical strikes of the previous year or theyear before last, I would not expect a completely passive response. I wouldexpect something measured, but much more active,” she said. – PTI