INDIA, U.S. FIRM UP PLAN TO COUNTER CHINA'S AGGRESSION IN INDO-PACIFIC

India and the US are working on a “two-fold” strategy to counter China’s aggressive agenda in the Indo-Pacific, South China Sea (SCS) and other regions and geographies.

- T. BRAJESH

One, New Delhi and Washington will fast-track the projects and other developmental works on which they are already working together in the countries which are in the Indo-Pacific region. Two, the Biden administration and the Narendra Modi government have decided to launch joint development initiatives in the “geopolitically and strategically important” countries such as the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

“The sectors in which joint work has to be done are being identified, and a strategy for the same is being finalized. Talks between the US and India are already underway at different levels of governments. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have recently briefly reviewed the development so far with the updates on the various such projects,” a source aware of the matter told The Sunday Guardian here in New Delhi. He added, “Jaishankar and Blinken agreed that a comprehensive discussion for finalizing the further strategy needs to be held as soon as possible for which a date to have a higher-level diplomatic meeting will be fixed.”