According to a July 11 South China Morning Post article, the recent border confrontation between China and India — the largest in half a century — has reopened a debate in New Delhi about whether it would be best to form an alliance with the U.S. to counter China. India has for decades maintained “strategic autonomy,” remaining neutral in the Cold War. And while the Obama Administration had pushed for India to work with other regional powers to box China in, India resisted this pressure.
According to Mohan Guruswamy, chairman of the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank and a senior fellow at the United Service Institution in India, India does not intend to join an anti-China coalition or take part in any military alliance against China. “India sees the U.S.-China rivalry as akin to a fight between elephants. When two big animals fight it is the grass and small beings who get trampled. We do not want any rocking of the boat, and see very little role for ourselves in this tussle,” he said.
