Emphasizing America’s intention to work closely with India, a top official at the White House, the official office and residence of the US President, said Beijing has taken some provocative steps along the India-China border.
“We need to understand the role that India will play as a great nation on the global stage,” Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant to the US president and coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, told a Washington-based think-tank.
“We want to encourage and support that,” Campbell said. We want to deepen that relationship, which is already very strong. The people-to-people ties between the two countries are the strongest in comparison to the ties the American people have with people of other countries globally…” Think tank Center for a New American Security said in a report that And incidents of clashes have increased.
According to the report, the growing apprehension of border hostilities between India and China has implications for the US and its Indo-Pacific strategy between the two Asian giants. According to the report, Indian officials believe that China is trying to undermine India’s willingness and ability to challenge Chinese ambitions by engaging India along its western border with Pakistan and eastern border with China.
Campbell told the think-tank, “Some of the moves China has taken along this vast 5,000-mile border are provocative and of great concern to Indian partners and friends.” Several suggestions have been made to help prevent and respond to Chinese aggression.
It states that the US should raise the issue of Indian territorial disputes and China’s aggression against other US allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and ensure that these are reflected in all national security-related documents and speeches. In the context of Pakistan, it was said in the report that it should be given a message that it needs to remain neutral in the event of India-China border dispute in future.
Campbell said the India-US relationship is “the most important bilateral relationship for America in the 21st century”.
