US will need India to counter China: US think tank

Washington -- Even as the Trump administration is cosying up to the Chinese, the US will need India to counter Beijing's growing influence in the world, a top American think-tank has said.

Describing India as a "key piece in the jigsaw" for the US, the Atlantic Council urged the Trump administration to prioritise its ties with New Delhi.

"Given the advancements that China has made both economically and militarily, the US will need to channel considerable resources to assert its global and regional primacy," Atlantic Council, a top American think-tank said in a policy paper 'Transforming India from a Balancing to Leading Power' released ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here.

"To accomplish this, India remains a key piece in the jigsaw for the US. President (Donald) Trump will need to assure India that it is not merely a regional prop to balance Beijing's power in the region, but a top priority for US foreign policy under the Trump administration," said the policy paper authored jointly by the former Union Minister Manish Tewari and Bharat Gopalaswamy, director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council.

"While Trump has favoured rapprochement with Beijing so far, there will need to be more initiative and effort from Washington to ensure that India-US relations continue to strengthen. The Asia-Pacific Stability Initiative proposed by Senator John McCain could be one effective way to signal the United States' intent towards India," it said.

The proposed USD 7.5 billion funding, if approved, could be a starting point for further India-US engagement in the years to come, they wrote.

Noting that during his campaign, Trump indicated that strengthening US-India ties would be a top priority for his administration, the two authors said Trump went on to woo India by openly vilifying China on a host of issues not limited to the South China Sea.

"However, since he was sworn into office, Trump has displayed an unprecedented degree of warmth in his attitude towards China, leaving Indian observers puzzled," it said.

"In his first few months in office, President Trump has demonstrated that Asia continues to be a major focus of US foreign policy," the policy paper said.

"His administration has addressed a multitude of issues related to China and the Korean Peninsula in a short time frame, reiterating US interests in the region. That being said, a more pressing concern is whether President Trump will work to enhance the stature of the Indo-American relationship in the same vein as his predecessors," Tewari and Gopalaswamy said.

We should stop thinking like Americans and begin to view the world as Bismarck would.

Yes, we need a growing economic and military power which is destined to become a superpower as a counterpoint to China. What we do not need is to outsource our foreign policy to India on the same scale that we are presently outsourcing our IT work to India. We do not need to permit India to alienate us from Pakistan or to commit us to war against Pakistan because India finds itself fighting a crazed but nuclear equipped Pakistan. The power to declare war should remain exclusively in the hands of the American Congress and should not be sold off by treaty or executive agreement to any other nation.

We should be shutting down the torrent of IT work that is being sent out along the Internet as if it were a firehose to India. I believe the average American has no idea how extensive this outsourcing is. Do you know how many tens of thousands of pairs of Indian eyes are at this moment piering at computer screens to do back office work subcontracted to IBM by American corporations? It is not just a question of importing bright Indians who are quite willing to work cheap here under a H1B visa until they bring over the wife and proceed to have anchor babies, it amounts to billions in contracts outsourcing work that Americans want to do and can do.

Why are we paying $7.9 billion to India or whomever (the article does not seem to be clear)? It seems to me the threat to India from both Pakistan and China is so existential that it is the Indians who should come hat in hand to the United States for protection rather than using Uncle Sam for an ATM machine.

What do we get out of all this? Yes, we want what probably will be the world's most populous country as an ally. We need them as a counterpoint to China, without question. Let them buy our protection rather than trying to buy their cooperation.

Bismarck or Britain over the centuries played a power balancing game with a view toward creating deterrence or effective alliances in case of actual war against an ambitious potential threat. That is exactly what we should be doing.

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