June 11, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1424

WASHINGTON, June 10: The United States and India are discussing a plan that will give New Delhi a greater role in Asia and bring about a major geo-political change in the entire region, diplomatic observers told Dawn on Tuesday.

According to this plan, India will be given the responsibility to maintain stability in South Asia and may also be asked to increase its presence in Southeast Asia to counter the growing Chinese influence in that region.

The sources said that the US Pacific Command, which controls US troops in the Southeast Asian region, also wants to share lesser responsibilities with the Indian Navy. This could include patrolling commercial sea routes, such as the Strait of Malacca and the Gulf of Aden, where piracy is a major problem.

This proposal, however, is opposed by the US Central Command, which is responsible for America’s military presence in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. The CENTCOM believes that such a move could undermine America’s relationship with Pakistan.

But more important for policy planners in Washington is India’s concern about China’s growth both as a military and economic power, a concern that also worries the Bush administration.

They point out that in 1962, India lost territory to China and, therefore, could be a natural ally in the US efforts to contain China.

Earlier this month, India’s chief of Naval Staff, Adm. Madhavendra Singh, said he was troubled by the Chinese navy’s close interaction with other Indian Ocean countries. The Indian Navy, he said, was closely monitoring Chinese naval movement off the Pakistan coast.

India fears naval facilities China is building on both sides of the subcontinent. In Myanmar it is modernizing naval bases on the Bay of Bengal. In Pakistan, it is developing the port of Gwadar, seen by Delhi as a potential threat to India’s sea communications.

Last week, senior US and Indian military advisers gathered at the Pentagon to discuss common US and Indian interests in this region. If reports in the US media are to be trusted, the discussions focused on setting up a formal defence alliance between the US and India that would be open to other western-aligned East Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea and perhaps Japan.

Diplomatic observers believe that if such an alliance were formed, it would augment the enormous shift in the correlation of forces already under way in Asia.

According to some US newspapers, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz might have also brought up the idea during his recent visit to those Asian countries.

While India wants the pact, some in Washington do not believe it is likely to come about. Teresita Shaffer at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, who is also a former US ambassador to Sri Lanka, says that the Bush administration is not very interested in that kind of 1950s, NATO-like arrangement.

But other observers point out that military-to-military contacts between the two nations are already growing. For example, they say, US Air Force personnel are training on Indian equipment and Indians on US planes.

In May, the Bush administration told Israel it could go ahead and sell India three Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems aircraft. In 1998, the Clinton administration had stopped Israel from selling this advanced technology to China.

The US administration is also likely to approve Israel selling India the Arrow-2 anti-missile system, jointly developed by Israel and the United States.