US strategy doc sees India as counterbalance to China

THE DOCUMENT FRAMED IN 2018 ENVISAGED BOLSTERING INDIA’S CAPACITIES

NEW DELHI: The US sees China as a strategic competitor bent on circumventing international rules and norms and a key security concern across the Indo-pacific region, where Beijing wants to establish “new, illiberal spheres of influence”, according to a newly declassified strategy document.

The document framed in 2018 envisaged bolstering India’s capacities so that it could work with other likeminded countries to act as “a counterbalance to China” and maintain the capacity to counter challenges from Beijing such as “border provocations”.

According to the US Strategic Framework for the Indo-pacific, one of the main national security challenges for the US in the region is maintaining its primacy and promoting a “liberal economic order while preventing China from establishing new, illiberal spheres of influence”.

The 10- page document, declassified on January 5 by the outgoing Trump administration’s national security adviser Robert O’brien, also states that China’s economic, diplomatic and military influence will “continue to increase in the near-term and challenge the US ability to achieve its national interests in the Indo- Pacific”.

Under President Donald Trump, the US adopted a confrontational approach to China on both trade and security issues and called out Beijing for not doing enough to contain the initial spread of the coronavirus in early 2020. The incoming Biden administration hasn’t fully spelled out its China policy though most experts believe president- elect Joe Biden will be less confrontational even as he counters challenges from Beijing.