Two Russian built warships with the same name i.e. Admiral Gorshkov have been making news in the last few weeks. The first vessel is an aircraft carrier which was sold to India in 2004 and is rechristened as INS Vikramaditya. It has been plagued in controversy due to costs and time overruns. The pre-delivery trials of the ship were unsuccessful and according to reports, the vessel will have to wait till the White Sea ice melts during the summer of 2013 to complete the trials.
Indo–China relationship touched a new low when the latter unilaterally cancelled the 15th round of Special Representative-level talks between Indian and Chinese diplomats which was scheduled to be held on 5th December at New Delhi. The reason as cited by China is a scheduled speech in New Delhi by the Dalai Lama. Perhaps gone are the days of Chinese socialism because this is the expression of Bejing’s feudal mindset and its narrow-minded approach to bilateral issues.
The dawn of the twenty-first century coincided with an unusual phenomenon in international relations: the emergence of China and India as global powers. The steadily rising rate of economic growth in India has recently been around 8 per cent per year, and there is much speculation about whether and when India may catch up with and even surpass China’s over 10 per cent growth rate. India and China understand the concept of co-existence and growth very well. This engagement has elements of both rivalry and cooperation.
The Pentagon releasing annual reports on Chinese Military Power is not new. However, for all these years, the Pentagon’s basic mandate has been to contextualize the Chinese threat to US interests.
India, today, stands at a threshold in leveraging its economic and military growth in consonant with its national security goals. This situation has earned both a national identity and an international status, where economic and military strength are major determinants. Ironically, India’s growing global status coincided with two major international developments: One is the disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union, and the second one is the end of the Cold War.