PSC CSE Mains Syllabus: GS-2- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Chinese aggression:

Asian multilateralism:

Can US offer leadership:

Opportunities:

What is needed:

To improve, the U.S. needs to make two major shifts.

  1. S. policy needs to start supporting, rather than attempting to commandeer, regional efforts to build a less China-centric futurefor the Indo-Pacific.

U.S. leaders need to remember that while Chinese aggression provides a powerful motivation for coordination, U.S. partners are seeking an agenda that is framed in broader terms than simply rallying to counter Beijing. 

Asian countries have strong, historically-rooted ideas about their own security and the future of the region — American leaders should recall the long-standing resonance of the Non-Aligned Movement in a region that resists a “new Cold War” framing.

Australia’s efforts to call for a COVID-19 investigation through WHO, as well as Japan’s desire to take the lead on a G-7 statement on Hong Kong, reflect not just an effort to push back on Beijing.

They also reflect concern that the current U.S. administration may box them into an untenable corner.

U.S. leadership would be far more effective if it worked with Indo-Pacific partners on the issues that they prioritise and provided them significant space for independent action.

It is often China’s own overreach (rather than Washington’s entreaties) that stiffens the spines of other Asian nations. 

US should avoid repeating Beijing’s mistakes and offer a clear alternative in word and deed to China’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy

Moves such as demanding that a G-7 communiqué refer to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus” and blocking mask shipments to close allies are the kind of counterproductive bullying that the U.S. should leave to China.

What regional partners should do:

Asian countries, too, have an opportunity to continue strengthening their own regional networks, which will challenge and complicate the views of those in both Washington and Beijing who would see the region only as a sparring ground in a bipolar U.S.-China competition.

India:

Source:” The Hindu“.

POSSIBLE UPSC CSE MAINS QUESTION:

The recent Chinese aggression may act as a catalyst for Pan Asian solidarity. Discuss. What role do you see for India in it?