China's growing military clout worries India, US

China's growing military clout worries India, US
NEW DELHI: India and the US came together on Tuesday to discuss China's massive modernisation of its military capabilities, its spreading arc of influence in the Asia-Pacific region and the basic uncertainty about its long-term aims. Coming as it does just before the India-US-Japan trilateral exercise off Yokosuka near Tokyo Bay on April 17, the move is likely to ruffle feathers in Beijing. China is already suspicious at the emergence of what is being called the ``axis of democracy'' in the Asia-Pacific region, with India, US, Japan, and Australia upgrading their defence ties. India, however, would like to be viewed as a ``neutral'' player rather than being projected as a counterweight to China or being part of any grand strategy to ``contain'' China. It has steadily improved its bilateral relationship with China, with several military CBMs being implemented along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control. But yes, India continues to remain apprehensive about China's deep strategic ties with Pakistan, its rapid modernisation of the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation Army and military infrastructure build-up in Tibet. This was reflected in defence ministry's presentation to the visiting US delegation, led by deputy under-secretary of defence for Asia and Pacific, Richard P Lawless, during the first Indo-US defence joint working group meeting on Tuesday. "We gave the US side our assessment of China's maritime strategy and growing naval expansion in the Indian Ocean Region. China is rapidly increasing military and maritime links with countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar," said a source. India, of course, is trying to counter these moves. The latest one came on Tuesday itself, with Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta holding talks with his visiting Indonesian counterpart, Admiral Slamet Soebijanto. With the Indonesian parliament recently ratifying a defence agreement with India, the two nations will now hold a joint naval exercise next year. The US, of course, is deeply worried about China, viewing it as the one country with the ``greatest potential to compete militarily'' with it. Lawless, in fact, recently held that China's strategic forces modernisation -- including development of DF-31 and DF-31A road-mobile ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), a new SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) and "qualitative upgrades" of older systems is "altering the historical nuclear calculus". China's anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test on January 11 has only aggravated the concerns. The US, during the JWG meeting, stressed the ASAT test posed a danger to the assets of all space-faring nations, including India. "The US delegation gave a detailed presentation to us on China's ASAT test as well as the initial projections of the 'military power of China' report to be submitted to the US Congress," said the source.