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East Meets West
by Greg SheridanI was greeted in March 2006 by Manmohan Singh in a small sitting room in the quite modest prime ministers bungalow in New Delhi. The prime minister of India wore a broad smile, for he had just days before concluded a revolutionary nuclear deal with George W. Bush. Probably outside of Israel, no foreign capital is as pro-Bush as Delhi. Singh was basking in the glory of the Bush deal. Indeed, Indias political and strategic elite, even more than Americas, understands the epic nature of the new strategic relationship with Washington. It has been rightly compared with Nixons opening to China in the 1970s. Its different in many ways, but it has the same potential to reshape almost all geostrategic equations, particularly those involving China. The economist academic who happens to be Indias prime minister is still not really a politicianthats one of Singhs great strengthsbut he was prepared to accept a little gentle praise for the Bush deal. In Washington, there is much (reasonably justified) self-congratulation over the India initiative, which is rightly seen as a masterstroke, but America has scarcely recognized Indias own complex and many-faceted motivations for entering the new relationship. One, which political correctness prevents both Indians and Americans from publicly discussing much, is Indias growing strategic competition with China. With a characteristic Asian feel for the balance of power, New Delhi has reached out to the superpower to counter-balance, in part, its giant neighbor and inevitable rival China. I predict that throughout the rest of this century Indias strategic competition with China will intensify and become almost as fundamental a part of the global order as the Sino-American contest. Posted by: john 2006-11-11 |
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