No need for India to fall in US-Japan trap

During a recent closed-door seminar endorsed by Washington-based Hudson Institute and New Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation, scholars from both countries said cooperation between India, the United States and Japan is necessary to "face the Chinese assertiveness" in the strategic Indian Ocean and Pacific regions.

Such insinuations are nothing new, except the emphasis that China has taken "an increasingly hard-line stance" on its territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. In the name of "strengthening mutual confidence and inter-operability", the three countries conducted the "Malabar" joint military exercise in Japan last year.

That Washington has started seeking closer defence ties with New Delhi and Tokyo does not justify their contain-China "mission". The previous US administration under Barack Obama embarked on the "rebalancing to Asia" strategy not long after China became the world's second-largest economy seven years ago. In doing so, Obama accelerated negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that excludes Beijing, beefed up the US-Japan military alliance, and sent warships near China's islands in the South China Sea in the guise of "freedom of navigation".