'US should pursue robust military engagement with India'

From Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jul 19 (PTI) The US should pursue robust
strategic and military engagement with India to limit China's
geopolitical horizons and encourage a stable balance of power
in Asia, two noted American scholars said Tuesday.
"The US should pursue robust strategic and military
engagement with India in order to encourage a stable balance
of power in Asia that prevents China from dominating the
region and surrounding seas," said Lisa Curtis and Dean Cheng,
of The Heritage Foundation in an article 'A Strategic vision
for US-India Relations'.
Noting that the US and India share a broad strategic
interest in setting limits to China's geopolitical horizons
and can work together to support mutually reinforcing goals
without becoming "allies" in the traditional sense, they said
the US should support India's military modernisation campaign,
including its quest for increasingly sophisticated
technologies, and develop new initiatives for keeping the
Indian Ocean safe and secure.
Additionally, the US should remain closely engaged
with the smaller South Asian states and temper any
expectations that the US and China can cooperate in South
Asia, where India remains the predominant power.
Although India's recent decision to forego American
planes to fulfill its fighter aircraft needs has added a dose
of realism to Indo–US relations, the complex challenge
presented by a rising China will inevitably drive the US and
India to elevate ties and increase cooperation across a broad
range of sectors in years to come, they wrote.
Curtis and Cheng said China's increased assertiveness
in the East and South China Seas over the past year has been
accompanied by a hardening position on its border disputes
with India.
Last summer, India took the unprecedented step of
suspending military ties with China in response to Beijing's
refusal to grant a visa to an Indian Army general serving in
north Indian state Jammu and Kashmir, they wrote.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Delhi last
December helped tamp down the disagreement, and military
contacts have since resumed.
"Still, the incident shows the fragility of the
Sino–Indian rapprochement and the potential for deepening
tensions over the unresolved border issues to escalate," she
wrote.
Curtis and Cheng said Clinton's visit to India for
Strategic Dialogue talks provides an opportunity to take
India's pulse on China and to discuss new diplomatic and
security initiatives that will contribute to maintaining a
stable balance of power in Asia.
The US should demonstrate support for Indian military
modernisation and enhanced US–Indian defense ties.
While China's economy is several times larger than
India's and its conventional military capabilities Tuesday
outstrip India's by almost any comparison, Beijing has begun
to take notice of India's growing global political and
economic clout, as well as the broad-based American support
for expanding strategic ties with India, they said.
For its part, India, long suspicious of China's close
relations and military support for Pakistan, views an
increased Chinese presence in northern Pakistan and expanded
civil nuclear cooperation between Beijing and Islamabad as
particularly worrisome.
Indian military strategists believe they must plan for
the possibility of a two-front war with Pakistan and China
even as they actively seek dialogues with both to diminish the
chances of such a dire scenario, Curtis and Cheng said.