chola wrote:
All of the India 'squabbles' have been supported by US over the last 30 years. So it is US which is hindering the balance in Asia.
This is the same stupid unreasoning sentiment that left India on the wrong side in the Cold War. Russia has armed China while the US does everything it can to hem in the lizard. Yet we always forgive the Russians.
Without the US, China would have free reign across Asia. True, the US has made China powerful by feeding its economy but that has also made China subservient to the US market. The US has given India a massive boost by opening their high tech market too. Around 70 percent of our heralded outsourcing sector comes directly from the US.
The one country that has stabbed India in the back by supplying China with the instrument of war (instead of the binding ties of economic integration) is Russia. Yet, I never hear a poor word on Russia in BR but many suspicions of the US.
I would beg to differ. It is indeed true that Russia has armed the PLA/PLAAF/PLAN with weapon systems which will be eventually used against India. For example consider the following cases
1) The SU-30 fighter. We practically paid this fighter to take to the air, and yet the Chinese were given the same fighter. In fact we should not be surprised at a later date to have PAK-FA flying in PLAAF, if J-20 develops trouble during its development.
2) "SS-N-22 Sunburn" missiles which were supplied to China in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some have even claimed that these missiles are nuclear capable and have a rated speed of Mach 3.
3) S-300 missile defense systems. The Heritage foundation has claimed that S-300 missiles are used to defend the ballistic missiles bases pointed at Taiwan.
Now consider what America did. In 1971, it practically threatened India with a nuclear option. This led India to drop the plan to annihilate the Pakistani armour on the Western front and decimate its armed forces. The Shimla agreement, which was so soft on Pakistan was also due to the invisible american threat to India. Recently in operation Parakaram, there have been reports which have suggested that Indian forces deployment patterns were passed on to the Pakistan. Now consider the Nuclear deal, in which we promised to keep our nuclear reactors under perpetual nuclear safe guards without any nuclear fuel supply being provided in perpetuity. Or in the nuclear deal America has sought to block the ENR technology via NSG. A repeat of the Tarapur fiasco.
And if China is able to buy weapon systems from Russia then it due to the fact that America has made it rich. A country's defense capabilities are a function of its economic might. And China's economic might is a large extent due to America's doing. That is why we should not fight somebody else war, like Taiwan, and rather stay focused on our interests, Tibet and East Turkestan.
America and Soviet Union/Russia both have harmed our interests immensely. If Russia has harmed our interest, then so has equally America, if not more. This is the nature of international politics. We take what we want from X and disregard the rest.