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| China-India-Pakistan disputed border territories |
Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will visit Beijing on Monday to talk with his counterpart and top-ranking Chinese military officials about how to implement an agreement to improve security along their border.
The meetings come within a week of Parrikar and visiting US Defense Secretary Ash Carter agreeing to sign a ground-breaking agreement on logistics.
Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) officials took pains to say that the intention in principle to help the Indian and US militaries better coordinate, including exercises, should not be interpreted as an effort to partner with the US against growing Chinese influence.
However, analysts said India will find it difficult to walk the balancing act to better ties with China while simultaneously enhancing its security interests in the region.
"New Delhi will have to convince China that it is not a front-line state in US efforts to check Beijing's influence in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean region," said Nitin Mehta, a defense analyst in India.
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