US-India ties
The recent US announcement that it will expand its defence partnership with India to enhance its ability to counter Chinese “aggression” and maintain open access to Indian Ocean shipping routes underscores how Washington sees only one major rival in the years and decades to come — Beijing. In an introductory note for the US National Defence Strategy 2022, Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin bluntly noted that China “remains our most consequential strategic competitor for the coming decades”. Although the document does acknowledge the continuing threat posed by Russia, there is no question that only one country is seen as a legitimate long-term threat. While some of the measures and areas of interest and disputes are not clearly expanded on, perhaps to avoid worsening relations with China. However, the document is quite clear on how the US expects India to help contain China, including by supporting New Delhi in its efforts to thwart Beijing’s attempts to “establish control over its disputed land borders”.
India and China have several ongoing border disputes, including Aksai Chin — which is also part of the Kashmir dispute — and a significant portion of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims was illegally ceded to Raj-era India by the short-lived government of Tibet, many of whose decisions China has never recognised. The new strategy may be of concern to Pakistan — a long-time US ally — but it should not be a surprise. The US National Security Strategy papers for 2021 and 2022 do not even mention Pakistan. However, it should also be noted that the security strategy paper for 2022 essentially admits that the problem is not Chinese conduct, per se, but just the fact that anyone is challenging the US. After all, one passage criticising China can fairly be applied to the US, or any other major power trying to expand its influence — “[China] harbours the intention and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order in favor of one that tilts the global playing field to its benefit.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2022.
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