While Wang Yi’s India visit and PM Modi’s upcoming China visit may signal a degree of creeping normalcy at the bilateral level, Beijing’s expanding footprint in South Asia is set to intensify regional competition, requiring careful assessment of its implications for the overall India-China relationship
Over the past decade, India’s strategic landscape has grown increasingly complex. Beijing has not diluted its consistent strategy of constraining India. Whether through deepening ties with Pakistan, or expanding influence in India’s periphery, China’s approach remains adversarial. Beijing’s assertive regional posture underscores the urgency for India to rethink both its economic and security policies.
What began with a coup in 2021 has devolved into a theater for China’s energy security, India’s border anxieties, Russia’s arms sales, and America’s China strategy. Each external actor pursues its narrow interests; none has the incentive to restore genuine stability. The losers, inevitably, are Myanmar’s people.
Chinese emperors, especially those of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, recognized that control over Tibetan Buddhism offered a powerful form of soft power. By leveraging religious authority, they could exert indirect political influence over Buddhist populations beyond China's borders.
New power tools being used by China to expand regional dominance have heightened regional security dilemmas and sparked arms races. They have also caused systemic wariness among nations of the Indo-Pacific who will long for the status quo of a stable rules-based order.
The potential implications of recent protests in New Caledonia are best understood in the context of a broader framework of China’s increasing presence in the South Pacific island countries.
This new bloc is vital for both the US and regional players, especially the Philippines which is not part of the original Quad. For Australia and Japan, this new partnership represents a more focused security arrangement with greater on-the-ground ease of conducting military activities as compared to the more bureaucratic Quad.
Bangladesh must exercise caution when considering the adoption of the Indo-Pacific Strategy advocated by the US and its regional allies. This move could potentially strain Bangladesh's friendship with China.
Over half of these 'research vessels' operated in the South China Sea, but their growing presence in the Indian Ocean has stirred regional tensions and is a matter of growing concern to India.
While most of the attention to keeping the Indo-Pacific region free and open has been focused on strategic issues, Venkataraman emphasized the critical role of the IPEF in boosting regional economic ties.
India has signed a $375 million contract with the Philippines for three batteries of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, among the most advanced in the world. This will be seen by Beijing as a direct threat to its interests in the South China Sea.
“We are all fighting a global war against our common enemy, which is the climate crisis,” said Dr Rajendra Shende
China used both the ASEAN FTA and RCEP tariff concessions to enter the ASEAN market to make it a potential platform for sneaking into the Indian market through the ASEAN–India FTA.
Sri Lanka is also allowing Chinese research vessels in its ports. China has big plans for the region, not just spy ships.
India’s inevitable regional and global leadership provides a welcome new opening for the country and the region in their security calculations. It remains the region’s most important Asian partner in providing the economic and security fallback that is based on values, trust and proven expectations.
Why no heads rolled for the surprises in 2020 with PLA exercising in Aksai Chin and a new road constructed five km short of Galwan?
The establishment of a second naval base in Lakshadweep, INS Jatayu is a key part of this strategy. It's a calculated move to counter China's influence in the Indian Ocean Region.
China has tried to set up a hybrid renewable energy system mixed with solar, wind, and other renewables on three islands in the Jaffna Peninsula. It was later cancelled. There is no economic reason for hosting such a project in a place so close to India.
Australia has succeeded in sending a strong message to both ASEAN and China. To ASEAN, Canberra has communicated its commitment both in economic and security terms. The keyword will be a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is in line with the overall security vision of the West.
