June 4th 2002
By Amit Baruah
The United States is promoting India's role in the task of maintaining a strategic balance in East Asia. As China's economy booms and Beijing's ambitions expand, the U.S. sees India as a useful counterfoil to China.
Speaking at the ``Asia Security Conference'' organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), the U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, said here on Saturday: ``Russia and China are positioned to play important and positive roles in East Asian security.'' Clearly, the U.S. sees India as an emerging strategic player in East Asia and is encouraging New Delhi to increase its profile in the region.
The duties assigned to the Indian Navy to escort select American vessels through the Straits of Malacca appear to be part of that effort. In the past, no such role for India was spelt out by the U.S. But, now, with India-U.S. relations at a different plane and levels of cooperation diversifying and increasing across the board, Washington seems confident of envisaging a new role for India in South-East and East Asia.
In his formal address at the inaugural ``Asia Security Conference'', the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, who led the charge against China before the May 1998 nuclear tests, has not quite shed his suspicions about the role that Beijing might play.
``Much of Asia's security future will depend on the way China's leadership shapes its policies, vis-a-vis many of its neighbouring countries. China has embarked upon a path of rapid modernisation and ambitious economic growth. It is our hope that economic development in China will help it play a benign role in all Asian matters, including the peaceful settlement of its boundary disputes with some countries in the region.''
Mr. Fernandes is saying that India expects China to play a ``benign role'' in all Asian matters and not just relating to the desired peaceful settlement of China's boundary disputes with neighbouring countries (including India).
So, India's interest, he maintained, is not limited to China pursuing a policy of peace towards India, but extend to ``all Asian matters'' in which, say, the U.S. may also have a stake.
Mr. Fernandes, while referring China's economic growth, said in his address: ``India too has been busy in its quest for modernisation. Compared to our level of development only a few decades ago — we have made rapid progress in all sectors of our economy....''
``We seek to build bridges of economic cooperation with all countries in Asia. We sincerely believe that such cooperation serves the twin objective of mutual economic benefits and a strong matrix which enhances the stake of all nations in secure, peaceful and mutually supportive co-existence,'' he said.
While the BJP-led Government is seeking to build on the ``Look East'' policy formulated by the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, it is clear that India's current approach to East Asia has strong strategic underpinnings.
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has visited five of the ten ASEAN countries. He has been to Japan and has plans to visit China.
All these visits signal just one thing — that India wants to be recognised as a ``player'' in this region.
That China has deep suspicions about the U.S. role in Asia was evident from the answers that Major General Zhan Maohai, Director-General, Foreign Affairs Office, Chinese Ministry of National Defence, provided at the Asia Security Conference in response to a barrage of questions. While China is seeing a renewed presence of American troops in the Philippines, it is wary of U.S. forces setting up permanent shop in Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Major-General Zhan, for instance, hoped that the U.S. would abide by its commitment of not staying permanently in Central Asia. In response to queries from Western security experts about the kind of cooperation China was providing in the American ``war against terrorism'', the official did not give details, but said the question should be posed to U.S. officials.
On relations with Pakistan, he said Beijing had ``normal State to State'' and ``very good military'' relations with Islamabad, but denied that China had supplied sensitive missile and weapons' technology to Pakistan.
He also said that like any other country in the world, China had to strengthen its military defence, especially as Chinese weaponry was ``20-30 years'' behind the developed world.
The Major-General also took issue with and categorically denied suggestions at the conference that China exported sensitive materials used for the possible production of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq and Iran.
Dialogue at this new forum, floated by the IISS with the concurrence of Defence Ministries within and outside the region, indicates that talking about security issues is a preferred method of profile projection for influential nations.
A new forum for Defence Ministers is in the making — Foreign Ministers in the Asia-Pacific region already have their talk shop in the form of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
