Periscope: Juggling US & Russia, India needs a Plan B

Indian diplomacy backed only by “soft power” is facing many challenges with its neighbours — Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar and Nepal — increasingly coming under Chinese influence, while Pakistan, which is being courted by Russia and China, seeks to get back into the good books of the United States, whose unpredictable President Donald Trump has to decide if India is a “strategic partner” when he takes a decision on waiving sanctions due to Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act as India imports arms from Russia and oil from Iran. What does a nation do when confronted by a rising hegemonic power, China, which is adding two blue-water warships to its Navy every month, after successive Indian governments have degraded its military capability and its scientists cannot make even a decent rifle for its troops, and it faces American sanctions like CAATSA for procuring Russian arms or needs to bring its Iranian energy imports to “zero” by November 4, 2018? India did what it could do diplomatically: invited the mercurial US President to be the chief guest for the 2019 Republic Day parade ; signed the Helicopter Operations from Ships other Than Aircraft Carriers ; cleared imports of 24 MH-70 multi-role ship-borne helicopters ; indicated willingness to import an American “missile shield” for protecting Delhi against a 9/11-type terror attack and on September 6, 2018 signed the Comcasa during the inaugural “2+2” dialogue in New Delhi. All these will permit India as a “major defence partner” to import new American technology, receive the latest tactical pictures in real time from American units to American-origin Indian platforms like warships, naval P8I LRMP aircraft, MH-70 ship-borne helicopters, Sea Guardian armed drones, and IAF aircraft like C17, C130, Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, etc.