PakChina bonhomie reaffirms India’s rise

BILATERAL POLITICS Islamabad’s position reduced to client state AFTER THE DOKLAM

through Gwadar just as it uses Myanmar to access the Indian Ocean through Kyaukpyu port and possibly make India vulnerable in its rapid growing NorthEastern states.

Containment of India through a pincer move is understandable as China’s worst case scenario is India and the US joining hands to counter PLA aggression South China Sea and Indo-Pacific region with the choking of the Malacca Straits as a potential flash point.

After the 73-day Indian Army-PLA standoff at Doklam, the Chinese leadership has started looking at India with respect with its paramount leader Xi Jinping taking the final call on decisions in respect of New Delhi rather than leaving this to the mandarins in the foreign ministry or PLA headquarters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also made it clear to President Xi Jinping that while India will not do anything to destabilise Beijing, it will not play second fiddle to anyone in the world when it comes to protecting national interests.

While India’s ties with the US are ever growing with a bipartisan consensus, they are not at the cost of Russia even though PM Modi knows the growing synergy between Moscow and Beijing. Fact is that Indian and US interests converge in Afghanistan, Indian Ocean, Middle-East and the Far East much to the chagrin of China, which despite all aggression has a constant two-front hostility nightmare.

Beijing revised its attitude towards India after the latter stood up on Beijing’s imperialistic Belt Road Initiative and supported the freedom of navigation in South China Sea, with the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia joining hands. China has always treated India as a civilization power with no history of animosity towards the middle kingdom. The problem is that India under Modi is a global player, not the regional supplicant China wants.