Obama’s Attendance at Parade Was a Display of Solidarity in Face of Increasingly Assertive China.(Wall Street Journal)
NEW DELHI—U.S. President Barack Obama joined Indian leaders on the reviewing stand at a military parade here Monday in a display of strengthened ties between the world’s largest democracies as an increasingly assertive China shifts Asia’s power balance.
The American president’s appearance at India’s symbolically important Republic Day celebrations came a day after a summit meeting at which the two countries agreed to deepen cooperation on defense and economic development at a time of mounting global tensions.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday there had been a “transformation” in the two nations’ relations, adding: “We are prepared to step forward firmly to accept the responsibility of this global partnership for our two countries and toward shaping the character of this century.”
This is the first time India—which spent much of the Cold War espousing nonalignment and nurturing ties with Russia as the U.S. cultivated New Delhi’s rivals, Pakistan and China—has invited an American head of state for the event.
Mr. Obama’s attendance is a sign of U.S. hope that as Washington makes its pivot to Asia, India—under the leadership of Mr. Modi—will be able to overcome hurdles that have long constrained its economy and prevented it from becoming an effective strategic counterweight to China.
“We see India playing a greater role in ensuring international security and peace,” Mr. Obama said after talks with Mr. Modi on Sunday.
Shyam Saran, chairman of India’s National Defense Advisory Board, said, “Neither India nor the U.S. would like to see a security landscape in Asia that’s dominated by China,” adding: “This has become a very important relationship for India.”
India, which lags behind China in terms of wealth, manufacturing sophistication and military technology, is deeply distrustful of Beijing, with which it has competing territorial claims. New Delhi resents China’s aid-driven influence among its South Asian neighbors and its rising naval presence in the Indian Ocean.
Last autumn, more than 2,000 Indian and Chinese troops tussled with one another for weeks near a remote Himalayan village along the two countries’ disputed border—the biggest and most serious such confrontation in decades. There was shoving and shouting, but no shooting.
Alarm bells also rang in New Delhi after a Chinese navy attack submarine made a 2014 port call in Sri Lanka, the recipient of billions of dollars in Chinese loans for infrastructure construction projects.
In a commentary over the weekend, the Chinese government’s Xinhua News Agency said Mr. Obama’s visit to India “is more symbolic than pragmatic, given the long-standing division between the giants, which may be as huge as the distance between them.”
On a rainy Monday morning in the Indian capital, Mr. Obama sat next to Mr. Modi as Indian tanks, missile launchers and columns of colorfully clad troops streamed by.
The parade also featured flyovers by a Boeing Co. -made P-8I antisubmarine-warfare plane and Lockheed Martin C-130J transports, which India has made a point of landing at a high-altitude airstrip to demonstrate its ability to rush troops and equipment to the country’s Himalayan boundary with China.
Messrs. Obama and Modi said after their Sunday meetings that they would deepen defense cooperation, increasing joint exercises between the two countries’ armies and navies. They also agreed to work to jointly develop and produce defense technologies.
The question for some U.S. policy makers is: Can India step up? “If the Indian economy can’t get more traction, it will be hard for the country to have a more important role in the region or the world,” said one Obama administration official. “This is a moment and everyone is looking for action.”
India is struggling to revive its economy after a period of relatively low growth. Mr. Modi was elected last year after promising the country’s frustrated voters that he would to deliver development and industrialization in a country eager to catch up with its neighbors in East Asia.
More than six decades after independence from Britain, India’s capital still suffers from frequent disruptions in electricity supply. The country has few facilities capable of precision manufacturing and its thicket of bureaucratic red tape and rickety roads, railways and ports have discouraged investment.
Mr. Modi has embarked on what he promises will be a broad revamp of government policy aimed at attracting foreign investment, building infrastructure and getting the country onto an export-oriented growth path. Mr. Obama said the U.S. would help. “We want to be partners in this effort,” he said.
It is unlikely to be easy. Six years after the two countries signed what was billed as a landmark agreement on civil-nuclear cooperation, the two sides Sunday said they had made progress toward actual commercial implementation. President Obama called it a “breakthrough,” but U.S. officials said work remains to be done.
Progress in other areas, from clean energy to climate change and trade was largely incremental.
Mr. Obama cautioned: “This new partnership won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take time to build and some patience.” But, the president said: “We have a new and perhaps unprecedented opportunity, and deepening our ties with India is going to remain a top foreign-policy priority for my administration.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-appearance-at-indias-republic-day-sends-message-to-china-1422245039
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