Obama's pivot east fuels an Asian Cold War [View all]

[rug]

Obama's pivot east has done little to contain China's strategic expansion.



Obama listens to remarks by Modi in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC [Reuters]

by Tom Hussain
Tom Hussain is a journalist and Pakistan affairs analyst based in Islamabad.
1 HOUR AGO

The balance of power in South Asia has been decisively tipped in India's favour by the US decision on Tuesday to grant it "major defence partner" status and support its accession to influential clubs of "good" nuclear states.

The joint statement that emerged after US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met at the White House describes an emerging defence partnership in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, an obvious response to China's increasingly muscular assertions in those maritime theatres.

In seeking to contain China, however, the US has set aside long-standing diplomatic principles.

Hitherto, nuclear-armed states could not gain access to the finest US military technology - specifically, equipment with dual-use applications in strategic weapons - without becoming a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/06/obama-pivot-east-fuels-asian-cold-war-160612062537847.html

Lovely.