By Dingding Chen
A warmer India-U.S. relationship will not hurt China-India relations — unless India makes a suicidal choice.
The recently concluded trip by U.S. President Barack Obama to India was hailed by many as a turning point in U.S.-India relations. A short list of achievements includes agreements in defense, nuclear cooperation, climate change, and security. In particular, there is considerable hype that India has agreed to join the U.S. to contain China’s rise. There are also reports that (here and here) that China is now worried about the warming relationship between the U.S. and India. Is this really so?
A warm U.S.-India relationship will not worry China. In fact, the outcome might disappoint those in India and the U.S. who want to actively balance the rise of China. There are three primary reasons for this.
The first reason is that India has always maintained an independent foreign policy since its independence, thus making it very difficult for it to join any major power as an ally. As the book Wronged by Empire convincingly argues, India has a strong sense of victimization that still is relevant today to its foreign policy. In practice, this means that India will always remain suspicious of any major power’s potential threat to India’s independence and security. No matter how successful president Obama’s trip to India was this time, it is very unlikely that India would completely trust the U.S. intentions in helping India to balance China. Modi perfectly understands that India and the U.S. need each other at the moment and there is no harm in welcoming American assistance in balancing a possible China threat.
Read the full story at The Diplomat