The Arms Build-Up In India Is Now Getting Attention

The medium range, surface-to-surface Prithvi-2 missiles being test fired from mobile launchers at the Integrated Test Range, Balasore off the Orissa coast. Hindu Business

India’s Border Build-Up -- War Is Boring

China’s hostile attitude towards India and its continuing supply of advanced weaponry to Pakistan — most recently the Z9EC anti-submarine helicopter — is driving India into a weapons-acquisition and -modernization spree. Just in the last few weeks, Indian media reported that China has been issuing loose-sheet visas to Indian citizens from the state of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), in effect saying for the first time that China does not recognize J&K as Indian territory. Further, the impressive display of Chinese military power at its National Day parade on October 1 has not gone unnoticed in India.

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More News On India's Military Build-Up
And It's Relations With China

India, Russia agree arms pact likely worth $5 bln -- Reuters
India, Russia to launch fifth generation fighter jets -- Economic Times of India
India, Russia agree to extend military cooperation for 10 years -- Trak.in
India tests nuclear-capable missiles -- Times of The Internet
India tests nuclear-capable missiles -- UPI
India Tests Nuke-Capable Missile Twice -- Defense News
India, China will continue talks to resolve differences -- The Hindu
India and China in a tit-for-tat spat -- L.A. Times
China worried over US-India military cooperation -- Rediff
India and China: On A Collission Course? -- Reality Zone
Geo-Strategic Chessboard: War Between India and China? -- Global Research
Chinese Threat on Border and India’s Defence Preparedness -- Mainstream
Dangerous Crossroads: U.S. Expands Asian NATO Against China, Russia -- Global Research
Bordering on Danger: A Sino-Indian boundary dispute risks flaring up -- Wall Street Journal opinion

India Emerges From Obscurity As New Global Force

Meeting between Indian and Chinese Military Forces

From The Canberra Times:

The rising might of India and the growing menace of piracy collided recently in the Gulf of Aden, a million-square-mile expanse of waterway between Somalia and Yemen. Raising the profile of both India and piracy, last Wednesday the INS Tabar engaged and set ablaze, and probably sank, a pirates' mother ship. This came after India's demonstration of prowess in space, with the successful launch of a lunar probe that, as well as being a symbol of scientific development and international stature, should garner India a share of the lucrative commercial satellite launch business. And on November 15 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was one of the world leaders gathered in Washington to discuss ways and means of rescuing the world from the grave financial crisis afflicting it.

In other words, signs of India's rapid rise to international prominence are unmistakable and all over the map. And the rise is multifaceted and multidimensional, not just restricted to a stunning economic growth rate for more than a decade.

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My Comment: India has a number of natural forces at work that will insure it having a dominant role on the world stage. India has the population, demographics are in its favor, and the Indian Ocean is in its backyard. Its negatives includes the grinding poverty in the region, religious intolerance, and unstable neighbors. But even with these negatives, the question is never if India will play a prominent role in the world .... but when.

India Building Military Installations On Its Border With China

(Click To Enlarge)
Photo from Wikimedia

India Building Airfields Along China Border: Mukherjee
-- Khaleej Times Online

NEW DELHI - India is constructing a number of airfields close to the border with China to counter any potential threats even though the two countries have taken adequate measures to ensure peace along the frontier, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament on Thursday.

“Thirteen operational roads are to be completed in Arunachal Pradesh. We are also constructing airports (airfields) close to the border,” he said while replying to a supplementary during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

Responding to a question on Chinese incursions along the Line of Actual Control, Mukherjee attributed these to the “different perceptions” of the two countries.

“There is a disputed area of 38,000 sq km that we say China has illegally occupied. In addition, there are 5,000 sq km that Pakistan has ceded to China from the part of Kashmir it controls. China thinks Arunachal Pradesh is part of its territory.”

My Comment: The Indians clearly have little confidence or security in China. They are preparing themselves for the future.

Consequences Of A U.S.-India Nuclear Deal

US President George W. Bush (seated) signs the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Non-proliferation Enhancement Act during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington October 8, 2008. [Agencies] (Photo from China Daily)

Fallout Of US-India Nuke Deal -- Christian Science Monitor

Could China's plan to help Pakistan build nuclear power plants be the first of many pacts in the region?

Washington - China's agreement to help Pakistan build two nuclear power plants is prompting warnings that the new US-India civilian nuclear deal is already pushing other countries to pursue their own nuclear relationships.

The concern among South Asia experts and nonproliferation advocates is that the American deal allowing India to pursue an expanded civilian nuclear program with limited safeguards is prompting other countries in a volatile region to seek a similar deal – something the US had said would not happen.

"You can't help but hear about China supplying Pakistan with nuclear power plants and see it as a reaction to the US-India deal," says Michael Krepon, a South Asia nuclear proliferation expert at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington. "Pakistan is desperate for energy, as is India, but there are lower-cost and shorter-timeline options for producing it, so there is something else going on here and in the Middle East."

That "something else" – whether a result of Iran pursuing a nuclear program it claims is peaceful or Saudi Arabia talking nuclear power with the US – is a regional scramble to counterbalance the nuclear plans of often untrusted neighbors. In the case of Pakistan, it's the pursuit of a counterweight to offset the expanding US-India strategic partnership – particularly in the nuclear realm – through a similar, though less ambitious, partnership with China.

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My Comment: If one looks into the future .... 15, 20, or 30 years from now .... the focus for much of the world's tension will be in Asia. As regional Asian powers become stronger and more independent, alliances and military cooperation will be the order of the day for many of these states.

One point of contention will be between India and China. China has always assisted Pakistan .... and India has a long history of conflict with both of these countries. As a result, both countries can now be seen positioning themselves to have an advantage over the other in the event of any future disagreement or conflict through nuclear pacts and military treaties/cooperation.

China And India -- Ressurecting Old Rivalries

From MSNBC:

Possibly dangerous rivalry grows as countries seek to control vital sea lane
updated 9:45 a.m. ET, Sun., June. 8, 2008

HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka - This battered harbor town on Sri Lanka's southern tip, with its scrawny men selling even scrawnier fish, seems an unlikely focus for an emerging international competition over energy supply routes that fuel much of the global economy.

An impoverished place still recovering from the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hambantota has a desolate air, a sense of nowhereness, punctuated by the realization that looking south over the expanse of ocean, the next landfall is Antarctica.

But just over the horizon runs one of the world's great trade arteries, the shipping lanes where thousands of vessels carry oil from the Middle East and raw materials to Asia, returning with television sets, toys and sneakers for European consumers.

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My Comment: Twenty to thirty years from now one can easily a geopolitical confrontation between China and India. I will be looking at this more closely in the next few days.