Aussie India Pact Worries China No End
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison have now signed a defense logistics cooperation pact during their VIRTUAL MEET and thus turning the bilateral ties into a strong Partnership.
As this accord has taken place during the ongoing Crisis created by Chinese intrusion further into Indian territory in Ladhak, the Chinese are already a worried lot. Prior to 1962, Chinese captured Tibet, a free country whose Will they have not been able to subjugate till date. Then they intruded into Indian territory and captured a large uninhabited chunk of Ladhak in 1962.
So now the Chinese think that due to ongoing friction between Beijing and Canberra over Wuhan Virus and Trade matters, Australia has taken the initiativev to seek a pact with India as an insurance against China. As per some Chinese analysts, this move is being regarded as a joint effort between India and Australia to counter China.
China has recently developed frictions with both counties. Australia, relies on the US for security and China was a big trading partner. So Australia always tried to balance the two sides.
However, as one of the US closest allies in the Asia-Pacific region, Canberra recently coordinated with Washington closely over latter’s initiative over Freedom of Navigation in the Indo Pacific and also blamed China for spread of Wuhan Virus into Australia. Therefore finally Australia too has adopted a tougher stance toward the dictatorial China.
After Chinese President Xi Jinping and Modi held their first informal summit in Wuhan in 2018, China and India had been steadly improving their bilateral ties. They acted prudently to cope with various sensitive issues at the international level, including their own border disputes.
Yet after the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus, the whole World has been looking askance at the Chinese blunder. Meanwhile Indi’s stature both as the third largest economy in the World and the largest democracy has been on the rise. Indian influence is especially high in regions such as South Asia, South East Asia, Gulf Countries, Africa and even the Indo Pacific. Therefore, the Chinese are in panic mode and their attitude towards India has changed to an alarming extent.
By asserting itself against recent Chinese intrusion on its border with Tibet, India has clearly indicated to China that it is not at all impressed with such third rate tactics of the Chinese military. In fact China is under tremendous pressure from the international community because of Wuhan Virus, in particular from the West. The world is now clearly seeing that there is only one country which is going to stand up and call all the bluffs of the Chinese Government and that is India. So China has deliberately started a crisis in Ladhak.
Since US President Donald Trump introduced the Indo-Pacific Strategy in 2017, his administration has been trying to Woo and cajole India into its strategic fold. Trump’s recent move in inviting Modi to participate in the G7 summit is another display of his strategic intentions.
India is ready to cooperate with other countries of the world including China in all spheres. However it will not join any power block. It has always chartered its own path.
Within the Quadrilateral cooperation Dialogue – known as Quad – among the US, Japan, India and Australia, coordination between Australia and India has already been set in motion. The two, after all, have equal stakes in developing peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean and Indo Pacific.
Historically India always had a flourishing trade with the East and so no wonder one of the first thing done by the NDA Government was the revival of the Act East policy, whose range covers Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries and Oceania.
India today is being urged by most of the countries in the Indo Pacific to play a leading role in the Indian Ocean, especially in Southeast Asia and right up into the Pacific. For example, India is a member of an international organization called the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectorial Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), in which seven countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia cooperate. India contributes 33 percent of the BIMSTEC Permanent Secretariat’s expenditure. Every one in the region wish that India becomes the Security Guarantor.
Though India will refrain to don the military policing role, it will surely cooperate militarily with all the countries in the region for providing joint security. So the Exercise Malabar presently a trilateral naval exercise involving the US, Japan and India as permanent partners will soon be including Australia as the fourth member of the Quad.
Thus India and Australia on Thursday signed a pact of mutual logistics support to increase military inter-operability through defense exercises between the two countries. Furthermore, New Delhi is set to include Canberra in the Malabar trilateral naval exercise this year.
An enhanced partnership between Australia and India, especially in terms of military cooperation, will bring about a new change in the strategic pattern of the entire Indo-Pacific region. Such changes will shape a peaceful atmosphere in the region, promoting peace and stability.
Australia and the US have already conducted certain degrees of coordination over the South China Sea issue.
India, as a power with global influence, will not be joining any camp. India has always been stressing its diplomatic independence. However it will not tolerate any interference from any country in the peaceful atmosphere of the Indian Ocean Region.
