Richard Verma, the highest-ranking Indian-American official in the State Department, has expressed optimism about the future of US-India ties and emphasized the need to base the relationship on shared values rather than mere transactional dealings. Verma, who previously served as America's Ambassador to India, stressed the importance of the Quad in defending the international order, highlighting its shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The trigger that led Japan and the Philippines to ink the deal was because of the deteriorating security situation in the South China Sea. China's coast guard increased the frequency and intensity of incursions into Philippine waters, provoking the Philippines to take countermeasures to deter China, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
After the 1962 War with China, there was a demand to forge greater defence cooperation between India and the West. One such voice was that of Sudhir Ghosh, a distinguished MP, to tie up strategic cooperation with the USA immediately after the Chinese attack on India, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
'Trump's aggressive stance towards China and preference for military posturing could shift the Quad's balance towards overt militarisation.'
China, which is the second highest spender on defence after the United States, has allocated 1.67 trillion yuan (about USD 232 billion) for defence spending.
Lou also spoke about China's tensions with neighbouring countries without directly mentioning the eastern Ladakh border standoff with India since May 2020 which resulted in the Galwan Valley clash in June of that year.
The Quad also vowed to work towards a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific, a region that has seen increasing Chinese military muscle-flexing in the last few years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory and called for China and the United States to find the right way to manage the differences by strengthening dialogue and communication.
The government has approved the construction of two indigenously designed nuclear attack submarines and is expected to ink contracts next month to procure 26 naval variant of Rafale jets and three Scorpene submarines, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said on Monday.
'We condemn recent illicit missile launches in the region that violate UN Security Council resolutions. We express serious concern over recent dangerous and aggressive actions in the maritime domain. We seek a region where no country dominates and no country is dominated one where all countries are free from coercion, and can exercise their agency to determine their futures,' the declaration said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Quad is not against anyone, but for a rules-based international order and respect for sovereignty, in a veiled reference to China.
Lisa Curtis, who served as deputy assistant to President Trump and as National Security Council senior director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021, said she expected the same bumps for India and the US, as in Trump's first term, including tariff, dependence on Russia over arms supply and oil purchase from Iran. Curtis, however, said both countries could never enter an alliance but develop a partnership that is "short of an alliance". She hoped them to achieve a cooperation that deters China, but also prepares both countries in case of a crisis or conflict, be it in the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, or another flare-up on the India-China border.
Flexing its muscles over Taiwan, China on Monday sailed its aircraft carrier close to the estranged island amid tensions with the US following President-elect Donald Trump's telephone call with the Taiwanese president.
This is the first time in decades that China has made its flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile public in an apparent show of strategic deterrence, State-run China Daily reported.
'China did not expect India to show such strategic resolve in defending its territorial integrity.'
'Tensions and dialogue are likely to go hand-in-hand with China.' 'The goal should be to cultivate power so that one can negotiate from a position of strength.'
PM Modi went to New York this time not to engage in polemics, but to find solutions to global problems. He made some progress on several matters, even on reform of the UN Security Council, when the US made a major concession for the first time that six permanent members without veto, including India, could be considered
Reports (not denied by India) that the USA had 'for the first time provided real-time details to their Indian counterparts on the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion' into Tawang at the LAC in December 2022, helping India thwart China's expansionist designs, show how operationally effective the USA-India friendship has become on the ground. A engaging excerpt from Sreeram Chaulia's must-read new book, Friends: India's Closest Strategic Partners.
According to the Pentagon report, the PLA is creating options for dissuading, deterring, and defeating external intervention in the Indo-Pacific region.
Dong, whose age is not known, has served in all major naval divisions in the PLAN.
India is increasingly a willing participant in the evolving US' Indo-Pacific strategy. While these developments are related to the perception of a growing Chinese security challenge, their implications for India's much-vaunted strategic autonomy should be a matter of deeper and closer reflection, asserts former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'The real issue between India and China is that the Chinese have transgressed along the Line of Actual Control at multiple points.'
A Chinese fighter jet performed an unsafe manoeuvre after it came as close as 20 feet within a United States military aircraft over the South China sea, The Hill reported on Thursday citing the US Indo-Pacific Command.
Blinken also underlined that diplomacy is the only way to definitively end the Russian conflict in Ukraine.
China on Tuesday angrily denounced the nuclear-powered submarine deal announced by the US, UK and Australia, saying the pact violates the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the three countries are travelling "further down the dangerous and wrong path."
In a surprise development, a top Chinese military general has cast aspersions on the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s much-publicised 'real combat-oriented exercises' as 'fake combat capabilities' at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered it to prepare for 'maritime military struggles' to win wars.
It will be a historic and strategic mistake to insist on taking China as a threat and adversary, or even an enemy, Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fengh said on Sunday as he underlined that the China-United States relationship is at a critical and crucial juncture.
The Australian High Commissioner had said Australia remains deeply concerned by Chinese actions in the South China Sea that are 'destabilising and could provoke escalation'. In a tweet, the Chinese envoy took objection to his remarks and said they were made 'disregarding facts'.
US President Joe Biden is set to meet his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area, CNN reported, citing senior US administration officials.
China on Wednesday defended its move to release a new 'standard map' for 2023 showing Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of its territory, saying that it is a 'routine practice' in accordance with its law and urged India to 'stay objective and calm' and refrain from 'over-interpreting' the issue.
'Chinese are going bang, bang, bang building 30-35 reactors.' 'We should announce a programme of 50 new reactors and show that we mean business on the ground and not just announcements.'
Also, the monsoon this year may end up being the driest since 2015, which recorded a rainfall deficit of 13 per cent, they said.
The Bangkok Post reported that Beijing has warned ships to stay away from the region.
The Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a tense border standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 5, 2020, when a violent clash between the two sides erupted in the Pangong lake area.
The procurement is expected to signal a major upswing in India's strategic ties with the Philippines which has been focusing on ramping up its naval prowess in the face of its lingering friction with China in the South China Sea.
India on Tuesday lodged a strong protest with China over its so called 'standard map' laying claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin, and asserted that such steps only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.
China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. Beijing is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.
China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarising its man-made islands in the past few years, which it says it has the right to defend.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States this month will set new benchmarks for bilateral ties and some 'really big, historic and exciting' announcements are likely to be made on defence cooperation and boosting India's indigenous military industrial base, the Pentagon has said.
Amid the diplomatic sparring and souring of bilateral ties in the wake of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Special Envoy and Coordinator, Global Engagement Centre, James Rubin said the standoff was a 'tricky subject' as he sought cooperation into the investigation as far as it goes.
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