India and China would resume joint military exercises, the Indian Ministry of Defence has announced. Basing on the results of the negotiations between the heads of military agencies of India and China, the sides have come to the conclusion that cooperation in the sphere of defence will contribute to the strengthening of confidence between the countries.
By: Grigory Milenin, India and China have been engaged in a complex game of chess regarding each country’s leadership role in Southeast Asia. If a few years ago New Delhi openly called China the main enemy, today the two states are striving for cooperation. A leading researcher of the Center for East Asian studies and SCO of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Andrei Ivanov is sure that such a turnaround is caused by displacement of poles in international politics: “The United States considered China to be a key country in regards to the containment of the Soviet Union. At that time India was in friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and for this reason China and India were antagonists. Now we can see quite a different situation. The United States and China are rivals, and the competition between them is growing not only in Asia but in the world as a whole. Moreover, we can see that China is in a rather difficult situation, as its territorial conflicts with a number of states in South-East Asia has exacerbated. And now, when China is facing an increase in its competition with Japan, the USA and some countries of Southeast Asia, there is no advantage for it having bad relations with India. That is why China wants to improve them. China and India are members of the BRICS group, and in the framework of this organization their cooperation is rather successful. Associate Professor of the faculty of world politics of the Moscow State University Alexei Pilko believes that it is not excluded that in the foreseeable future Russia will develop a closer cooperation with India and China: “It is unlikely that China, India and Russia will sign some kind of a military alliance that will be binding or political. Cooperation between these three countries will most likely assume the form of consultations. In the future, India may become a member of the SCO, and then this organization will probably coordinate activities of these three countries. On the whole, everything is fine now concerning coordination between Moscow, Delhi and Beijing; and in case of international problems the parties frequently consult with each other and make concerted decisions.” So far the prospect of trilateral collaboration between Russia, China and India is rather vague. But depending on the major political interests of Delhi and Beijing, first of all, in the field of security, it is not ruled out that Moscow will manage to tilt the balance of establishing a common policy with the Asian partners in its favour. Source: Voice of Russia
