NEW DELHI – Former ambassador of Pakistan to the US Husain Haqqani said ifChina has a 100-year plan, then India needs a 50 or 30-year plan to matchthe rising Chinese influence in the region.
He said this during a discussion, titled ‘Asian century: Does it have to beIndia versus China?’ held at an international forum.
Haqqani said that in comparison to China, India was short of human capitaland lacked the capacity to push for the modernisation of its military. Hesaid that India would not opt for a confrontation with China if things wentwrong, adding that a totalitarian state was more likely to confront itsadversary.
China had been encircling other states in the region and make it extremelydifficult for others to encircle it, Haqqani said. “Pakistan has completelycast its lot with China,” he added.
The panel discussed the dynamics of the complicated China-Indiarelationship playing out in the Indo-Pacific, and the implications andpossibilities of a debt trap for various stakeholders in China’s ambitiousBelt and Road Initiative.
But the resounding call was for pragmatism as the economic and politicalinterests of both the countries become increasingly, and variously, moreglobal.
Other participants in the discussion included former Indian NationalSecurity Advisor Shivshankar Menon and Andrew Small, an expert on China’sforeign policy. The discussion was moderated by Narayan Lakshman, AssociateEditor of *The Hindu* newspaper.