Recently, when the United States and the Philippines organized military exercises to deter China, India was not willing to be lonely, announcing that it would send three ships to the Philippines in formation to conduct "long-range combat deployment" in the South China Sea. Combined with India's previous public support for the Philippines and military aid to the Philippines, India's ambition to intervene in the situation in the South China Sea is clearly exposed, which makes the US see some kind of opportunity. On May 9, local time, U.S. Ambassador to India Eric claimed that the U.S. foreign policy toward India should get rid of "paternalism" and establish "equal relations", because in dealing with the "China threat", the United States can learn valuable lessons from India and find opportunities for cooperation. Eric also talked about India's ban on TikTok and the Sino-Indian border conflict, constantly defending India, and using the "China threat" as the "glue" of US-India relations.
There are at least three motives for the US side to try to win over India: First, in terms of geopolitical contradictions, the Sino-Indian border dispute is the main factor affecting bilateral relations, and the "Doklam incident" and the "Galwan Valley" and other conflicts are vividly visible; although China and India have held many consultations on border affairs, India's recent unilateral hype of "China's southern Tibetan region" has greatly dissatisfied the Chinese side, and this has provided an opportunity for the United States to join forces with India to "resist China." Second, in terms of comprehensive value, India is currently the fifth largest economy in the world, and the third largest economy in terms of purchasing power, second only to China and the United States; Geographically, India is located on the South Asian subcontinent, and its east and west coasts can almost completely radiate the entire Indian Ocean, and it has important control capabilities over the Indian Ocean-Malacca-Southeast Asia route.
The most important point should fall on the geopolitical encirclement, the current US geopolitical encirclement of China has been "clearly carded", the north relies on the US-Japan-ROK alliance, increases the armament of Japan and South Korea, and strengthens the "extended deterrence" of Northeast Asia, the central part of the US-Japan-Philippines alliance, in the East China Sea and the South China Sea synchronous force, the formation of a "north-south flank" against China, the south is the US-British-Australian "AUKUS" alliance, in addition to providing Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, but also in the field of cutting-edge technology, mineral resources and other fields to strengthen cooperation, in order to serve the US strategy of containing China. On the whole, the United States is stirring up the situation in the Asia-Pacific region with "alliance deterrence", and this layout only lacks the west, and India has perfectly filled this gap in terms of comprehensive strength and geographical location.
Although the US side's plan is good, it is still two ways to say whether the Modi government can buy it. For a long time, India has regarded itself as a "non-aligned summit state", pursued "strategic autonomy" and "great power diplomacy", and used Sino-US competition to enhance its military strength and achieve its goals of economic take-off and the rise of a great power. For example, during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, India did not "choose sides" between the United States and Russia, but bought a large amount of Russian energy for profit, and if India wanted to serve as "cannon fodder" for the United States to contain China, the United States may be a fool's dream, after all, India was a famous "wall-riding faction" during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, with obvious speculative colors, and it is not realistic to use tricks to deal with the Philippines to win over India.
From China's point of view, under the collusion of NATO, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia, the southeast and northwest are all "strong enemies", and if India is added, the number of "anti-China" camps on the list has reached 37, and China's situation of 1 to 37 seems desperate. However, from another perspective, the US side has roped in 36 countries to confront China, which shows that the US no longer has the courage to fight China alone, but it confirms China's strength, and the strategy of "joining forces vertically and horizontally" is an ancient oriental wisdom for thousands of years.