Comment & Briefs

The Indian armed forces appear to be driving defence budgets rather than a cold calculation of the country’s desire for ‘adequate’ military capability.

Though the Indus Water Treaty apportions 80 per cent of the waters of the Indus River Basin to Pakistan and only 20 per cent to India, Pakistan is engaged in baseless allegations to inflame public opinion and project India as its number one threat.

While limitation in aims set is acknowledged as the primary way of conflict limitation, the point lost sight of usually on the politico-military facet is war termination.

While China has shown eagerness for the Dalai Lama’s return to China, it has categorically refused to take back the exiled Tibetan population based in India.

Adequacy or inadequacy of defence allocation largely lies in the manner it is spent keeping in view the defence requirements for meeting operational and strategic goals and to have the needed defence preparedness to deal with threats.

Karzai’s use of the word ‘proxy war’ in relation to India’s reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts can only be understood in view of the West’s fatigue in Afghanistan and the growing importance of Pakistan

Notwithstanding revelations about the secret nuclear pact, the Japan-US alliance is likely to remain strong and the East Asian security order will continue to be determined by the American presence

The disclosure of this agreement is aimed at scoring political points as well as addressing the discontent among the nuclear allergic Japanese who want adherence to the non-nuclear principles in letter and sprit.

China has to accept that the long term solution to Tibetan discontent lies in granting greater autonomy to Tibetans instead of pursuing assimilation oriented policies.

Contradictions in India-China relations provide the rationale for greater engagement exactly like it has done in the case of US-China relations.