By Zachary Keck
India appears to be playing something of a double game on the South China Sea dispute as it tries to balance its competing interests of expanding its influence in Southeast Asia without unduly upsetting China.
This week Delhi’s delicate balancing act was put to the test as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China coincided with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s trip to the Philippines.
The South China Sea doesn’t appear to have figured prominently into Singh’s trip to Beijing, which focused instead of dialing back tensions along the Sino-Indo border as well as rebalancing economic ties. However, ahead of Singh’s arrival in China, Khurshid gave a lengthy interview to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post in which he appeared to take a more conciliatory position towards China on the issue of the South China Sea dispute.
“We don't interfere” in the South China Sea dispute Khurshid told the Hong Kong daily. He added, “We do believe that anything that is a bilateral issue between two nations must be settled by those two nations.”
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