‘India showed capability to stand up to China’

NEWDELHI:INDIA showed “will and capability to stand up to China” in the recent border conflict, Lisa Curtis, senior director for South and Central Asia, US National Security Council, has said. The rest of the Indo-pacific countries are “watching this carefully” and have been “encouraged by India’s resolve”. Curtis said this during a Brookings Institution webinar on Wednesday assessing China’s growing regional influence. India, she noted, “played the economic card” by banning Chinese apps and putting a hold on Chinese investments.

“Thankfully,” she said, we are “beginning to see disengagement of forces. But the “pressure that China put on India on the LAC” will have a long-term impact on how India views China and will “change the dynamics between the two.” An experienced South Asia hand who has served the US government in both India and Pakistan, Curtis said, “Few countries are more familiar with China’s malign influence than India.”