Working together for an Asian century

India and China are competitors, but their difficulties in achieving long-term cooperation reflect lingering attitudes rather than conflicting strategic goals. In the emerging multi-polar world, major powers will have to come to some sort of accommodation with each other, shaped by three strategic shifts.

First, a significant shift of power is taking place from the United States to Asia as the driver of global politics. The US can no longer maintain its hegemony alone and it is therefore encouraging India to join it in securing a military balance of power in Asia. But any such treaty or understanding would be implicitly against China.

India last month rejected any notion of joining a trilateral security pact with the United States and Australia.