There is no question that today, forced to choose between allying oneself to a democracy or an autocracy, most countries would again choose both. They can hardly act otherwise.
China's $400 billion deal with Iran comes at a time when the US is showing little signs of lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran. This is not good news for India.
Biden’s comments came days after Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan & their Chinese counterparts traded criticism on human rights & national security issues during a meeting in Alaska.
While US officials have been promising an approaching 'infrastructure week' since the early days of the Trump administration, China has been ploughing ahead for years.
Alaska meeting attended by US Secretary of State Blinken and top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi among others quickly turned rocky as both sides traded barbs, raised sensitive issues.
At the Alaska meeting, US raised concerns about cyber attacks, Uyghur Muslims & Hong Kong while China countered by citing the Black Lives Matter movement.
Future wars will be fought on cyber domain. Delay in response will allow Chinese cyber soldiers to infiltrate Indian systems so deeply that de-coupling would become impossible.
Antony Blinken said China is the only country with economic, diplomatic military and technological power to seriously challenge the stable, open international system.
Donald Trump has been vocal about India’s high import tariffs and has threatened retaliation. Simultaneously, his tough stand on China could see Chinese goods flood India.
The Chinese aircraft has uncanny similarities to the American F-35 jet. There are claims that China copied the design. Cyber theft of F-35 design data was reported in 2009.
While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.
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