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Showing posts with the label China-India maritime rivalry

Rising China- Challenges for India

Image credits-Christophe Meneboeuf /Wikimedia It has been two months since I last wrote an article. The North Korean crisis is nearly over and India has moved away from Doklam.  But Doklam has taught us many truths, primary of them being that China as a power is here to stay. The world has moved on. But the omnipresence of China cannot be ignored.  China over the years has spread it's presence in the Indian Ocean region, with strategic investments in countries ranging from Myanmar, Bangladesh to Srilanka, Maldives and Pakistan. In these countries, in extension of it's Belt and Road Initiative, China is investing in infrastructure ranging from ports to roads and railways, all these steps mainly to recreate the ancient silk route. The Silk Route in it's modern avatar has two components, the land route and the maritime phase. The land route connects China to Europe via Central Asia and Europe, a sort of Eurasia route. Even though China will derive little or no econom

Asia: Time for collective security

Credits- Indian Navy Another article after a long time. This time I intend to deal with a particular subject, that is need for collective security cooperation in Asia with reference to containing China.  The security situation in Asia is fluid. China is in expansion mode. China has laid claim to and has border disputes with almost all it's neighbours starting from South China Sea and East China sea all the way to India. China over the years has built up a huge industrial infrastructure that it can effectively use to bolster it's defence capability.  It all began from 2008 onwards when China gave up it's policy of being a peaceful power and started   a policy of aggressive territorial claims which set it in course for confrontation with almost all  it's neighbours. This all began in South China Sea wherein China has laid a claim to the entire region in what is called it's nine dash line. That includes all of South China Sea which is also claimed by coun

The Growing India-Pakistan-China Nuclear Rivalry ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Francis P. Sempa )

Agni-5 ICBM ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons ) Source- The Diplomat Author- Francis P. Sempa  On June 22, 2016, the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute released a 60-page monograph analyzing the major trends in India’s nuclear posture and thinking in the increasingly challenging geopolitical environment of the Indo-Pacific region. India’s Evolving Nuclear Force and its Implications for U.S. Strategy in the Asia-Pacific is the work of three scholars who have written widely on India and Asia security topics: Yogesh Joshi, a PhD candidate at the Jawaharlal Nehru University whose work has appeared in Asia Policy and India Review; Frank O’Donnell, a lecturer in strategic studies at the University of Plymouth at Britannia Royal Naval College; and Harsh V. Pant, a professor of international relations at the India Institute at King’s College, London. Their work is a timely and important reminder that recent events in the East and South China Seas, which domi

China-India Relations After the NSG Plenary ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Deep pal)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping ( Image credits- Flickr/ MEA, Govt of India) Source- The Diplomat Author- Deep Pal Few analysts following developments at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) plenary in South Korea expected India’s membership bid to sail through. As the dust settles, what is clear is that Xi Jinping’s China differs considerably from Hu Jintao’s China. The latter did not want to stand alone; the former is on the path to establishing China as the challenger in the global order – and understands that such a project is necessarily a lonely pursuit. Beyond the arguments of whether or not joining the NSG accords India additional advantages, what stood out over the past month is the Modi government’s impressive ability to set a concrete objective, and pursue it with great coordination. While Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was leading India’s charge in Seoul, the prime minister himself brought up the issue with Xi in Tashk

Can India Counter China’s Submarine Force? ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Pushan Das)

Image credits- Indian Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Pushan Das Last week, India’s first conventional submarine in over a decade and a half —the INS Kalvari—finally began sea trials, amid reports of Indo-U.S. cooperation in tracking Chinese submarine activity in the region. As sightings of Chinese submarines become more frequent in the Indian Ocean region, the Indian Navy is looking at innovative ways to gain an edge in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. Can the Indian Navy effectively counter a modern Chinese submarine force, which is primarily optimized for regional anti-surface warfare missions near major sea lines of communication in the Indian Ocean? India’s expenditure on defense acquisition has remained largely static in real terms in recent years, resulting in constraints on not just the navy but the armed forces in general. The defense outlay for fiscal year 2016/17 was INR 2.49 trillion (USD 36.63 billion), but according to IHS Jane’s 360, th