President Barack Obama's India visit marked a shift in strategic ties by outlining a global role for the Asian nation and raising its international profile, developments bound to be watched with concern by an assertive China. Obama, who concluded his visit Tuesday, described India as a "world power" and made several key announcements that affirmed the country's importance as a global rather than a South Asian power.
He told parliament that the US backed India's bid for a permanent seat on a revamped UN Security Council. The endorsement had been awaited by the Indian establishment for many years.
Besides lifting restrictions on high-technology exports to India, Obama also built on the landmark US-India nuclear deal that had helped end New Delhi's nuclear pariah status. He announced support for India's membership in non-proliferation organisations like the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The US and India would collaborate on joint projects in Africa and Afghanistan, as both sides unveiled a partnership for democracy and development across the globe. Obama detailed the US's new role for India as a factor of security in East Asia, a region considered China's sphere of influence. The announcement came against the backdrop of increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region, and was in line with assessments by foreign policy analysts who say that Washington views India as a counterweight to China's growing might in Asia.
Obama, whose efforts to draw China into a closer relationship were spurned by Beijing, is currently touring Indonesia, Japan and South Korea in East Asia, all democracies which have problems with China. In that context, Obama's backing for a UN permanent seat for Delhi and a role in East Asia were likely to rankle in China, which often considers India a competitor. China is the only permanent member on the Security Council which has not supported India's claim so far.
Chinese state-run media also noted with concern Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's successful East Asia visit recently, which led to free trade deals with Japan and South Korea. Despite booming trade, Beijing and Delhi share uneasy ties due to a protracted boundary dispute and recent tensions over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, exiled in India.
New Delhi believes China is using its all-weather ally Pakistan strategically to contain India in South Asia. Singh recently said Beijing could use India's "soft underbelly" of Kashmir and Pakistan to "keep India in a low-level equilibrium." "Yes, it will worry the People's Republic of China, how far the US goes ... Because the US has a very strange relation with China. It's a love-hate relationship," said India's former foreign minister Jaswant Singh, who is credited with forging India-US ties.
"We have to work this through very carefully," he told the NDTV network. Analysts are unsure whether Delhi would want to play a counterbalancing role. "I think the Indian policymakers would do well to understand the India-US relationship for its strengths alone. China should not be antagonised, it is as vital a partner for us as it is for the US," Sanjeev Kumar Shrivastav, from the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, said.
The relationships between the US, China and India are considered key to the geo-strategic equation not only in Asia, but in the world, in the years to come. "While we might not be taking note of the fact, but the India-US relationship is about building a counterweight to China. That subtext is there. It's not an overt text," said Zoya Hasan, political scientist at the Delhi's Jawharlal Nehru University. She said there was a difference between grandiose statements at a summit and the "reality of power." "Now the (Obama) visit laid the foundations of a new, strategic partnership, the question is whether India is ready for this relationship," she said.
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