The New Cold War And US

India’s strategic conundrums are multiplied in the US-China faceoff, compared to the one with Russia

- Anita Inder Singh

The main strategic theatre of the US-China new Cold War is Asia. Economics and strategy are linked for both China and the US – and India. Authoritarian China’s astonishing economic and technological advance accounts for the worldwide spread of its Belt and Road Initiative, its growing military power and aggressive challenge to America’s primacy in Asia and to the state borders of India and other neighbours.

Ideological competition also characterises the new Cold War. President Xi has boasted about the merits of single-party communist rule in China, but President Biden is determined that the democratic US will stand its ground and confront autocratic China’s attempts to gain regional and world ascendancy. Biden’s determination may be good news for India, which needs strong friends against China. He wants the US and its partners in the Quad – Australia, India and Japan – to hold an expansionist China “accountable” in Asia.

A US-China Cold War could help deepen the US-India strategic partnership as both wish to counter China’s imperialism in Asia. The recent disengagement accord on Ladakh is not synonymous with the disappearance of China’s threat to India. So news about logistical security agreements and the recent joint India-US military drills in the Indian Ocean is good news.