Tillerson wants India to help check China’s ambitions in the Pacific
US push for alliance against Beijing comes at a sensitive time, writes Samanth Subramanian
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson makes his first official visit to India on Tuesday, where he will try to enlist New Delhi as a partner to counter China in the Pacific.
Mr Tillerson has called for much stronger ties between the US and India and was heavily critical of China in a speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Wednesday. He also criticised Pakistan for not doing enough to battle terrorism.
“The Trump administration is determined to dramatically deepen ways for the US and India to further this relationship,” Mr Tillerson said.
He compared China unfavourably with India.
“China, while rising alongside India, has done so less responsibly, at times undermining the international, rules-based order even as countries like India operate within a framework that protects other nations’ sovereignty,” Mr Tillerson said.
His stop in South Asia is part of a week-long trip that includes Riyadh, Doha and Geneva. He is also expected to fly to Islamabad.
Mr Tillerson’s speech on Wednesday devoted almost no time to Pakistan, but he said: “We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based within their own borders that threaten their own people and the broader region.”
His focus on alliance for “security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific” would be in line with a US proposal for “quadrilateral co-operation” in the region, which was first suggested in 2007.
The US defence secretary James Mattis had raised the idea again during a visit to New Delhi last month, the Indian government said.
It involves roping India, the US, Australia and Japan into a four-cornered cordon for China’s economic and military presence in the Pacific.
China’s contentious claims to maritime boundaries and oil deposits in the South China Sea, and its aggressive moves to secure them, are of particular concern.
“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the US and India both stand for,” Mr Tillerson said.
His remarks put India in a delicate situation in a year in which New Delhi’s relationship with Beijing has been particularly fraught.
Over the summer, Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a 73-day military stand-off in Doklam, a Himalayan valley that is contested by China and Bhutan, which borders the Indian state of Sikkim.
The stand-off was resolved until August 28 after prolonged negotiations, but the region remains tense with Chinese troops still stationed barely 12 kilometres from Doklam and Indian troops also near by.
There are other sources of tension between the two countries. On Friday, 400 Indian troops and 1,000 Russian servicemen began joint military exercises off Russia’s eastern coast, not far from China. The exercises are the first to involve the two countries’ army, navy and air force simultaneously.
China has also criticised India for levying anti-dumping duties on 93 categories of Chinese-made products, including steel, plastic, electronics and rubber.
The duties were intended to correct a fundamental trade imbalance, said SK Mohanty, a New Delhi economist.
“When you have so many exports coming from China to India, they must be competitive compared to other suppliers in India,” Mr Mohanty said.
But he said that China had “not fully opened up” to Indian products.
Given these tensions, this a sensitive time for India and the US to loudly proclaim their stance against China in the Pacific, although Indian officials have previously expressed their support for the model of quadrilateral co-operation.
The concept and Mr Tillerson’s speech have drawn a sharp reaction from China. On Friday, Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, asked that the US “put China’s development and China’s positive role in the world into perspective”.
“China steadfastly upholds the international order,” Mr Lu said. “China will by no means pursue its own development at the expense of other countries’ interests. Neither will China give up its own legitimate rights and interests.”
Beijing welcomes the new warmth between the US and India, he said, “but opposes any move that targets China”.