Christopher Landau, Deputy Secretary of State, speaking March 5 on the opening day of India’s biggest global strategy conference, the Raisina Dialogue, cautioned India, that while the U.S. is so, so excited about working with India to unlock its economic potential, India should remember that the United States has no intention of allowing India to rise so far as to become a major economic competitor, as China has.
First came the ballyhoo: “This century is going to be, in many ways, a century where we expect to see the rise of India. It is in our interest—and we think it is also in India’s interest—to be partnered with India. This is a country of almost unlimited potential. It is now the world’s most populous country. It has incredible economic, human, and other resources that make it one of the countries that is going to decide the future of this century. The United States very much wants to be part of that, and we think that we have many, many win-win situations with India.”
Then the punchline: “But again, India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago in terms of saying, we are going to let you develop all these markets, and then, the next thing we know, you are beating us in a lot of commercial things....”
