In a radio talk show on August 29, 2023, American Congressman Ro Khanna said that the relationship between India and the United States of America is critical in dealing with adversaries such as the Russian Federation and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).
The US Congressman gave the statement after returning from India, wherein he led a bipartisan American Congressional delegation.
The Adversaries
“The People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation are clearly two strategic challenges and adversaries. That is why the relationship with India is critical in dealing with it. I think China and Russia are not always going to march lockstep, and there are opportunities there. But by and large, we should be clear-eyed about what they are doing,” he said.
Khanna said that it was unreasonable for the US to expect that India would block the Strait of Malacca during a conflict with China, but New Delhi could be aggressive on its borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh to open two front wars if Beijing invades Taiwan.
Strategic Significance of Malacca Strait
The Strait of Malacca is a waterway that connects the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean). As the link between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca is the shortest sea route between India and China, the two Asian giants. It is considered the most important choke point in the world.
It is classified by renowned maritime security strategists as a “Strategic Passage”, and all the economies of Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea are powered and dependent on oil and energy imports from the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.
The closure of the Strait of Malacca will have devastating consequences for Southeast Asian nations, Japan, Korea, and China itself. The closure of the strait will have serious implications for the American Military base of Okinawa, which houses a large number of aircraft of the US. Taiwan will also be affected seriously.
Khanna, who is currently the co-chair of the Congressional India Caucus, did not agree with the Indian-American presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who said that he would wish India to close the Strait of Malacca.
“We should be clear-eyed about what India will do or not. I mean that this is another point. The idea that they will close the Strait of Malacca is just unreasonable to expect, and the allies of the US, i.e., South Korea and Japan, would not go along with that in India,” he said.
The Lombok Strait
“From our conversations, we are not going to do that because you can bypass the Lombok Strait or Sunda, and you would not get Asian support for that,” Khanna said.
Lombok is an island in the West Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia. It is a part of the chain of Lesser Sunda Islands, and the Lombok Strait separates it.
“What can we expect India to do? We can expect India to be aggressive at their borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, so China has a two-front concern. They have to worry about the border of control with India and not just put all of their resources into a Taiwan potential invasion and deterring the freedom of the seas,” he said.
Why did India rely on Russian Arms?
Khanna said that the US delegation, during its meeting with the External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar early this month, also discussed India’s purchase of arms from Russia. The Minister said that India became dependent on Russia after the US stopped selling military equipment to India in 1965. This was due to the policies of Richard Nixon.
Khanna said India was left with a border that was unsecured with China, with America not selling it any arms post-1965, and they had to go to the Russians to get arms both to defend themselves against China and Pakistan.
“That was almost a 40-year history. Now, we are building the defence relationship, but he said you cannot expect a switch overnight. They want to switch. They understand our stuff is better, and we need to work with that,” he said.
The Taiwan Conundrum
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a total of 22 provinces. It claims Taiwan as the 23rd Province and wishes to reunify the island with the mainland. It follows a One China Policy. This basically means that there cannot be two Chinas. Mainland China is called the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC). The US, Japan, South Korea, and Australia back and provide military support to the island nation against China.
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