The world is at a cross-road. The stakes cannot be bigger and more significant in determining whether or not a new age of global relations is in or the resuscitation of the Cold War is back.
As BO embarks on his trip to Asia-Pacific this weekend, a few days after the mid-term elections, expected to be a debacle on the domestic policy front, the symbolism of his trip to India, his first as a U.S. president, cannot be more revealing.
In the face of China's continuing recalcitrance in not caving nor succumbing to Western and in particular American pressures on a host of issues, from human rights, democratization (Western style), currency revaluation of the renminbie relative to the U.S. dollar, trade deficits, Tibet and the political monk's platform from the West using Chinese officials as whipping boys for defanging Tibetan "cultural autonomy," America today, under Barack Obama, is increasingly looking to India as a "counter-foil" to blunt and contain China's re-emergence on the world stage.
The big ultimate question for India and India's ruling Congress Party, under Indian premier Manmohan Singh is: "Will India play the "American Card" against China?"
What does India want and are Indians leveraging its position for certain advantages, such as:
(a) a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council Seat ?
(b) a comprehensive resolution of the border boundaries issues between China and India specifically on Arunachal Pradesh?
(c) Concessions from China vis a vis Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is a volatile issue in South Asia which has triggered several skirmishes and outright wars between India and Pakistan ?
What does America, through Barack Obama's emergent "Encirclement of China" or "Neo-Containment of China," want from India ? Are Americans focused on:
(1) Enlisting India as a "watchdog" for Western and American interests at China's southern perimeters, at China's southern flank, as Japan and Japanese ruling class under Naoko Kan being enlisted to be America's "watchdog" in China's eastern flank?
(2) Getting India to open up its potentially vast market to bail out America's deep economic depression by buying up more American goods and services ?
(3) Cultivating India, as one of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) new emerging states, as a counterfoil to China's rise ?
On the sides of the East Asian summit in Hanoi a this week, the signals as demonstrated in the body language, contacts, photo-ops, demeanors shown by Premier Wen Jiabao points to China's outreach to India's premier Manmohan Singh to prevail upon him and his government, as well as the Indian people, not to play "the American Card" with China. It is also very clear that as to relations between China and India, Beijing offiicials are prioritizing it as a more strategically important and more salvageable relationship than that with Japan.
Please note:
On the sidelines of the Hanoi summit, the relationship shown between that of Premier Wen and Japanese premier Naoto Kan was not only cold, but sour, and pointed to a deteriorating relationship by virtue of Japan's belligerency on the issue of disputed Diaoyutai, and worse, its internanationalizing of the dispute by drawing in the Americans and playing the "American Card" to the max. This was a slap in the face. And clearly Chinese officials are showing their displeasure against the Japanese government of Naoko Kan.
That BO's trip to India provides a "texture" on how important this trip is to BO in terms of his foreign policy attitude and mind-set.
40 airplanes will be part of BO's entourage. The entire Taj Mahal Hotel has been booked, en toto, for the presidential party and his gungadins, an entourage full of American businessmen salivating to sell trains, nuclear technology, and do other deals with India.
Michelle Obama and their two daughters will accompany BO on the India leg of the trip. Telling signals on the demeanor and nuances of this trip.
Premier Wen Jiabao, by a surprise visit to the India Pavilion at the closing of the World Expo in Shanghai, calibrated a very significant and "nuanced" signal to his Indian counterpart, Premier Manmohan Singh. The signal is loud and clear, " don't steer over-exuberantly too close to the American Tiger, or you may end up being devoured by it." As it now appear, following BO's trip to India, Premier Wen Jiabao will schedule his trip to India, to try a last ditch effort to stabilize China's relationship with India, and remind India that it should not be the West' "running dog" in Asia, as Japan's Naoko Kan and the Japanese have become America's "running dogs" in Asia.
Check out the report of Premier Wen Jiabao's side trip to the Indian Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, after his Hanoi appearance for the East Asian summit, with the ASEAN countries. Wen's deliberate and intentional visit to the Indian Pavilion was intended to be an olive branch designed to reach out to India to do the right thing. You will note that Wen Jiabao deliberately avoided the Japan Pavilion or the U.S. Pavilion on his trip to Shanghai World Expo, following Hanoi.
Zhung Guo Bu Gao Xing. Zhung Guo Bu Gao Xing.
Check out the logistics of BO's upcoming visit to India, and the calibrated nuances being desciphered by "Amerika Watchers" inside China.
The signals at the Hanoi summit insofar as Premier's Wen Jiabao's demeanor pointed at Japan's Naoko Kan are unmistable. Icy Cold.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69U0AV20101031
