SURE, IT'S REVOLUTIONARY...:

India could yet play the 'China' hand (M D Nalapat, 1/19/08, Asia Times)

The possibility of India joining with the United States and Japan in hostilities against China would necessitate a distraction in the concentration of China's military on the Taiwan Strait. Moreover, India's naval and other assets could take over several maritime commitments of the United States in the Indian Ocean, thus freeing a much larger force for the Chinese theater. There is also the value of a close strategic link with another country of a billion-plus people, one that is, moreover, a democracy that hosts more than 220 million people who speak the English language.

Will India pull a "China" on Beijing and garner geopolitical benefits by offering itself as a counterweight against China, in much the same way as China secured gains for itself by professing to serve as a counterweight to the Soviet Union? Should India become a US ally, the strategic situation for China would worsen not simply in Asia but across other continents as well, for India too has a large footprint, reaching across most parts of Africa and Asia, as well as selected countries in South America.

Such a pairing of the world's two largest democracies seemed an unlikely prospect until the advent of President George W Bush.

...but W deserves credit for recognizing a natural alliance rather than creating one.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 18, 2008 8:07 AM