By steadfastly not aligning with any military bloc and treading a middle path in geopolitics, India has been successfully positioning itself as global ‘swing state’, which will prove a strong deterrent against any potential serious India-centric military adventurism by China.
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These views were expressed by noted defence and security analyst Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd.) in an interview with your own news website LifeInChandigarh.com on the sidelines a national seminar on ‘Jammu & Kashmir And Ladakh: Developmental Dynamics And Future Trajectories’ organised at Panjab University Chandigarh on Thursday.
Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd.)
Photo By: Life In Chandigarh
Interacting with this writer on wide-ranging issues particularly emerging out of the current massive military standoff with China in Easte Ladakh, and also other friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LoAC), Gen Hasnain said he did not believe that China’s intent in amassing a massive force on the border in Easte Ladakh was to wage a war.
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“With a force of 50,000, China could not have hoped to capture even an inch of Indian territory by going to war. A war effort would entail committing a much larger military, and firepower, to the war theatre,” observed the Gen., who has had an illustrious military career having commanded a brigade, a division and a corps in Kashmir, besides a strike corps, and later serving as Military Secretary to the Indian Army.
Attributing the Communist neighbour’s aggressive posture to its attempt at achieving a set of strategic goals, Gen. Hasnain said the foremost among them is to try and embarrass India, and dent its growing strategic confidence. “China perceives us an emerging strong competitor to its global ambitions, given our growing influence in the Global North and our role in championing the cause of the Global South,” he added.
It is also an attempt to so engage and confine India’s military resources to its land frontiers that its focus on further strengthening its maritime power gets diverted. China finds itself weak and vulnerable in the maritime domain since most of its critical trade especially energy supplies pass through the Indo-Pacific. Expansion of India’s maritime power is this region is seen to be detrimental to China’s strategic interests, Gen. Hasnain noted.
The defence analyst is of the view that in his over ambition to achieve well before the deadline the Chinese Communist Party’s avowed goal, spelt out at its 19th Congress, of making China the most powerful nation in the world by 2049, the one hundredth year of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping is aggressively attempting to settle China’s territorial disputes.
The Chinese leader sees the forced integration of Taiwan into mainland China and arm twisting a favourable settlement of the complex border dispute with a strong India as stepping stones to his glory, hence the military posture at the LoAC is also being used to pressurise India into a settlement, he said.
Gen. Hasnain opined that India on the other hand, known for its neutrality and autonomy of decision making on international issues, has played its cards well to generate international opinion and support in its favour in the current border standoff with China.
By steadfastly staying clear of military blocs and following the principles of multilateralism (as member of several global groupings like G20, SCO, Brics, Quad, I2U2, and more, none of which are purely military oriented), India has been able to cement its ties with the West without denting its traditional trusted cultural, trade and military ties with Russia.
“In doing so we are successfully positioning ourselves as a ‘swing state’ on the world stage, charting our own course on an issue-by-issue basis and exerting a strong influence on the future of the global balance of power, which bodes well for the country’s future,” Gen. Hasnain concluded.
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