By IANS,
New Delhi: Pitching for an inclusive regional architecture in Asia, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran Monday said America’s strategy of offering China co-leadership role after the global financial crisis increased Chinese assertiveness to the detriment of India.
“In my view, the US effort to co-opt China in its recovery strategy, by offering the latter the prospect of global co-leadership has failed,” said Saran at a lecture at the India Habitat Centre.
The lecture, entitled “Geopolitical Consequences of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis: A Reassessment after One Year”, was organised by the National Maritime Foundation, a think tank, and presided over by former naval chief Admiral Arun Prakash.
“The Chinese perceived the US invitation as evidence of US infirmity and therefore an opportunity for strategic assertiveness by China,” Saran said, adding that Beijing tried to use its trillion dollar surplus to change the geopolitical pecking order permanently in its favour.
“Such perceptions also led China to adopt a more muscular and sometimes overbearing, posture vis-à-vis other major powers such as Japan, the European Union and India,” he said.
Linking up the geopolitics of the financial crisis to its impact on India’s interests, Saran pointed out that US President Barack Obama’s last-minute refusal to meet the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama in the White House last year was an encouragement to Beijing to get more assertive.
“But the fallout of this presidential deference to Chinese sensitivity was that the Chinese, in their posture towards India, became increasingly vocal in their opposition to His Holiness’ proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh; even our own prime minister’s visit to the state provoked strong criticism.”
Saran stressed that the “US expectations of any quid pro quo from China were thoroughly belied during Obama’s visit to China in October last year”, and warned of the dangers of the much speculated G2 condominium to the stability of the world.
“Neither condominium nor confrontation between the two is in India’s interest,” he said, adding that New Delhi’s strategic space and room for manouevre since the Cophenhagen summit on climate change has increased and should be leveraged judiciously.
Pointing out that the revival of the global economy was uneven across countries and regions, Saran pitched for a new regional architecture in Asia.
“India’s preference is for an open, inclusive and loosely structured architecture both in the economic and security fields.
“Building coalitions with other major powers, wherever interests converge and whenever opportunities arise, will continue to offer the best prospects for safeguarding and promoting India’s interests,” Saran said, while urging India to retain strategic flexibility in dealing with a changing global geopolitical landscape.