Playing down India's decision to sign a logistic agreement with the US, China's state media today said the proposed deal is "stalled" because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the "most beautiful woman" wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.


"Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India's ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers," an article in the state-run Global Times said as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials.


"The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China," the article titled 'Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing'.


"This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War," it said.