US should treat India and China as equals: Book

The United States should acknowledge the reality of emergence of India and China as two new power centres and start treating them equals, a new book written by an eminent American journalist has said.

"Americans must wake up to the reality that they will have to deal with China and India as equals," writes acclaimed journalist and author Martin Sieff in her new book 'Shifting Superpowers'.

Sieff was previously chief news analyst for United Press International and has received three Pulitzer Prize nominations.
"Both need to be respected and understood on their own vast and complex terms," he said.

But, observes Sieff, "The history of US engagement with both nations is replete with examples of excessive hostility and demonizing on the one hand, and naive, uncritical romanticism on the other."

By 2009, the combined population of India and China was more than 2.5 billion—more than one-third of the entire human race, he said, adding that the rise of both nations to great-power status was assured.

"The US retained a dominant position in the world, but the rise of new centers of power, especially at New Delhi and Beijing, guaranteed that the 21st century would be multipolar.

The best prospects for maintaining US global leadership and general prosperity lie in recognising the reality that America's unipolar moment has already passed," he writes. This book has argued that a major US conflict with China, while unfortunately all too possible, is not inevitable.

"Any conflict would have devastating negative effects on both countries. In the event of war, China's internal stability and its essentially peaceful economic and industrial growth would be capsized by a wave of virulent xenophobia. The US, too, would suffer devastating economic consequences, even if it emerged victorious militarily," the book says.

Sieff says in Washington, there is a comfortable consensus that India has largely moved into the US camp as a long-term strategic ally. Republicans focus on nuclear cooperation and the war on terror. Democrats rest their assumptions on commonly shared democratic values.

"Yet India's reliance on Russia as its main source of Sukhoi combat aircraft, aircraft carriers, supersonic BrahMos cruise missiles, naval frigates, and T-90S main battle tanks increased dramatically after the Bush administration took office and launched its strategic initiative toward New Delhi.

This Russo-Indian partnership shows no sign of abating under President Obama," he wrote.

"It is safer and far more advantageous for US national interest to seek peace and cooperation with Delhi and Beijing than to seek conflict with either of them. Experts often interpret the future of Asia as an impending clash of civilizations between India and China and their respective political systems. Such an apocalyptic outcome is certainly not imminent. Both nations have far more pressing domestic concerns than to obsess over an Asian cold war," he said.