Posted on 10/07/2010 9:30:41 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
How India is undoing China's string of pearls
New Delhi's defence establishment has quietly put in place India's own counter-measures to woo and bolster China's neighbours as a long-term strategy, says Nitin Gokhale
One of the least understood and less scrutinised facets of India's diplomacy is perhaps New Delhi's 'Look East' policy, now nearly two decades old.
Launched during Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's regime primarily to try and integrate India's newly liberalising economy with that of the Asian 'tigers', that policy is now quietly evolving into a more robust military-to-military partnership with important nations in that region.
Over the past three months alone, top Indian military leadership has made important trips to key nations in South-East and East Asia -- Vietnam, South Korea, Japan [ Images ], Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
Indian Army [ Images ] chief General V K Singh was in Vietnam in July, furthering an already strong strategic relationship. General Singh's visit was the first in a decade by an Indian army chief.
Apart from meeting his Vietnamese counterpart, Deputy Chief of General Staff Pham Hong Loi, the Indian army chief discussed with Vietnam's National Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh, the road map to implement the 2009 memorandum of understanding between the two ministries of defence.
Two areas where India and Vietnam will focus their immediate attention were training of military personnel and dialogue between experts on strategic affairs on both sides.
General Singh's visit will be followed by Defence Minister A K Antony's mid-October trip to Hanoi when he will participate in the first-ever regional meeting of political leaders in the defence field.
As the current chair of ASEAN, Vietnam has invited India to the ASEAN+8 defence ministers meeting. The 10-member ASEAN will be joined by Australia [ Images ], China, India, Japan, New Zealand [ Images ], Russia [ Images ], South Korea, and the United States at that important conclave.
Although Indo-Vietnam political and diplomatic ties can be traced back to Jawaharlal Nehru's [ Images ] time, it was only in the post 1990s that the two nations decided to build and strengthen military-to-military relationship.
This development was a result of two main reasons -- one historical, the other contemporary.
To begin with, both India and Vietnam had borne the brunt of Chinese aggression -- India in 1962 and Vietnam in 1979.
And two, the collapse of the Soviet Union, for long a security guarantor for both India and Vietnam in Asia, left New Delhi and Hanoi without an all-weather, all-powerful friend.
Both India and Vietnam, who have long-pending territorial disputes with China thus decided to unite against their common adversary. Located on the edges of South-East Asia, Vietnam is ideally placed to prevent China's expansion into the South China Sea.
So, for over a decade now, India has been providing Vietnam with assistance in beefing up its naval and air capabilities in an attempt to deny China total supremacy in the South China Sea.
Both New Delhi and Hanoi traditionally sourced majority of their military hardware from the erstwhile Soviet Union. That commonality has meant that both can share expertise and resources available with their respective armed forces in terms of handling and maintaining the Soviet-era weaponry.
India, for instance, has repaired and upgraded over 100 MiG 21 planes of the Vietnamese Air Force and supplied them with enhanced avionics and radar systems. Indian Air Force pilots have also been training their Vietnamese counterparts.
The Indian Navy, by far larger than the Vietnamese navy, has been supplying critical spares to Hanoi for its Russian origin ships and missile boats.
After Antony's 2007 visit to Vietnam, the Indian and Vietnamese coast guards have engaged in joint patrols, and both navies participated in a joint exercise in 2007.
But Vietnam is not the only nation India is inching closer to in China's immediate neighbourhood.
Antony, who is fast emerging as a quiet but effective player in India's military diplomacy, in early September became the first Indian defence minister ever to visit South Korea, a pro-US, anti-China nation in the vicinity.
He led a top-notch team of military and civil officials like Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Vice-Admiral RK Dhowan, Lieutenant General K T Parnaik, DRDA Chief Controller C K Prahlada, and Sundaram Krishna, special adviser to the defence minister.
The visit was a follow-up on the declaration issued by both countries during President Lee Myung-bak's state visit to New Delhi in January, when it was decided to elevate bilateral relationship to a 'strategic partnership'.
Although nowhere near the level of Indo-Vietnam defence cooperation, the newly evolving India-South Korea partnership is being seen as a vital component of India's game plan to counter China's increasing footprint in the subcontinent.
Seoul is a perfect counter balance to the China-North Korea-Myanmar-Pakistan axis that New Delhi and US regard as a major irritant in the Asia-Pacific region.
Moving eastward, India is actively pursuing deeper defence cooperation with Japan. Last week, for the first time, India is expanding its defence ties with Japan, a newfound strategic partner in the region.
Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, chairman of India's Chiefs of Staff Committee, the senior-most Indian military officer, led an Indian delegation to Japan on September 28 to participate in the first military-to-military talks between the two countries.
Naik's visit comes just weeks ahead of a trip by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] to Tokyo in late October.
Naik's visit is a follow-up to Antony's discussions in Japan last year, when the two countries expressed their commitment to contribute to bilateral and regional cooperation, which in other words is an effort to build regional partnerships to counter the growing influence of China.
High level visits apart, the Indian Navy has been quite active in its friendly forays into the Pacific. A flotilla of Indian warships is about to complete a month-long deployment to the Pacific that included visits to Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.
So while Indian strategic thinkers have been busy sounding frequent alarms over China's increasing forays into the Indian Ocean and have often overstated the fears of Beijing's [ Images ] 'String of Pearls' around India, New Delhi's defence establishment has quietly put in place India's own counter measures to woo and bolster China's neighbours as a long-term strategy.
Whatever the consequences of this strategy and counter-strategy, one thing is sure: The Indian Ocean and its periphery are poised to become the new playground for the 21st century version of the Great Game in the years to come.
Nitin Gokhale is Defence Editor, NDTV.
This is all well and good, but IMO, India has fallen down in countering China on the land border, and the new agreement with Pakistan to improve the Karakoram highway virtually invites the PLA into Kashmir. An alarmist view, no doubt, but realistic too, I believe.
But China and India are somewhat simpatico in defying the West’s diktats on our climate’s epilepsy, so there is potential for the two to come together.
I doubt China and India can ever come together as long as China is communist and still holds Tibet. Tibet is needed as a buffer state. China wants to keep India down, there is no doubt of that
Hard to predict events, but the Dalai’s comment that one day he will return to Lhasa with a Chinese passport may be wishful thinking, delusional or something is in the works.
As far as motive, China, facing the bankruptness of Maoist and Communist ideology is cherry picking and restoring and encouraging precepts of Confucianism that help the Communists, like the notion of the state as the personification of the people.
They are also looking to revive Buddhism as the spread of Christianity is spooking them, and they are smart enough to understand that the peoples spiritual needs need nourishment too. Hence, creating a modern Chinese Buddhism is something that is percolating in Chinese society.
I don’t think there is any chance of Tibet regaining its independence, a condition that occurred relatively recently, as Beijing’s authority waned in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
I’ve veered around to the view that the Tibetans are probably ready to go in for Chinese rule with a modicum of religious freedom (roughly similar to Hong Kong/Macau ) given the lack of solid support.
I don’t think India could or can do more in countering China. It’s always been playing catch up with the Chicoms since the ‘lost decades’ (1985-2000). A substantial portion of any anti-Chinese strategy would have to include Jammu and Kashmir as well as development in the North-eastern states, none of which barring Assam has active rail lines.
Actually, Tibet has never been under Chinese rule — at the most it sent tribute to Chinese Ming Emperors, but even that is specious because until the Opium Wars, the Chinese did not “trade” with anyone. THey believed that goods coming in were “tributes” to the Emperor and goods going out were “gifts” from the Emperor. By this language they seek to show that they were / are somehow superior to all
Yes, you are correct. But Communist China has adhered to the principles of Western expansion and eventual annexation as followed, sometimes sporadically by the various imperial dynasties stretching over millenia.
And now, the “Han” are achieving population parity with the Tibetans.
The new highways and rails are solidifying China’s hold, as the Dalai Lama understands.
In fact, there will soon be a rail link to the base of the Chinese side of Mount Everest, where you’ll be able to take a picture with the massif of Mount Everest as the backdrop.
Tibet may be faddish in the West, but how many divisions does the Lama have, or Richard Gere for that matter.
I always chuckle sadly when I see a “Free Tibet” sticker on a car in Cambridge MA. Dream on, dudes.
What choice do they have?
Unless there is intense political turmoil in China, causing a loosening of its hold on Lhasa, could things change.
But even a popular government would adhere to the incorporation of Tibet into China, since this is something the people of China support.
America’s not starting any insurgency as it did in the late 50’s, early 60’s near the IndoBurmese border.
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