According to an article published today in the Wall Street Journal: "When India and China shake hands, the world notices," Indian PrimeMinisterManmohanSingh said following his Oct. 22 summit meeting with Chinese PremierLi Keqiang. But what the world is noticing now is how far ahead of India China seems to be pulling in the race for primacy in Asia. The need for urgent action from New Delhi is clear".
"Despite talk of Sino-Indian cooperation to build a more "democratic" world order, China appears determined to be Asia's dominant power. Beijing's policy of blocking any U.N. Security Council reform that would elevate India (or Japan) to membership indicates it sees little room for power-sharing".
"Despite talk of Sino-Indian cooperation to build a more "democratic" world order, China appears determined to be Asia's dominant power. Beijing's policy of blocking any U.N. Security Council reform that would elevate India (or Japan) to membership indicates it sees little room for power-sharing".
"As a result, India's national security establishment increasingly identifies China, rather than Pakistan, as the country's primary strategic competitor. Under Congress Party leadership, India has been hedging against China, including through an arms buildup and new military deployments along their contested border".
"Yet if New Delhi is serious about balancing China's rising influence, leaders need to get serious about doing so, and soon. Two major problems stand in their way.
First, India's government has hampered the country's ability to compete strategically by neglecting reforms that would allow it to grow economically. New Delhi's economic policies have driven away not only foreign but also domestic investors. The Congress Party-led government Mr. Singh runs has managed to halve the economic growth rate in only a few years mainly by stalling or backtracking on major investment-boosting policy measures".
"That makes for a stark contrast with China, whose economy is more than four times the size of India's. China's growth rate produces a "new India" every two years. The disparity has obvious implications for the relative levels of resources available to each country as they maintain or build their militaries, and also for the relative ability of each country to leverage its economic growth—in the form of trade and inbound and outbound investments—to bolster strategic ties abroad".
"Second, leaders in New Delhi need to adjust their thinking about India's role in the world, and particularly the common notion that India can and should go it alone, eschewing strong alliances with like-minded partners.
India has lately been hedging against the United States, which it sees as an unreliable partner in managing the Asian balance of power. This is despite a decade of efforts to construct an Indo-U.S. strategic partnership to meet the Chinese challenge. The drift in Indo-U.S. relations makes China's ascendancy in Asia look more assured than it did just a few years ago".
"There are signs that some in New Delhi are waking up to some of these problems. On Oct. 16, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said in a speech "In today's world there is no going back to absolute self-reliance, to autarchy or disengaging from the world."
That's a start, at least, on the economic problem. But India awaits a meaningful rethink of its go-it-alone mentality. Strategic autonomy may have served India when it was weak and poor and didn't have a dog in the global fight of the day anyway. It is time for a new doctrine. Establishing one would advance the interests of a rising, aspirational India".
