SEAview from India

There won't be much posting over the next few weeks, as I'll be off the beaten track in India.

Good place for a SEAview, mind you. There's plenty in the newspapers these days about Looking East... India and Myanmar... India and Viet Nam...

And always in the context of relations with China.

But Tridivesh Singh Maini warns, “One of the biggest mistakes Delhi could make would be to see the Indo-Vietnam relationship as simply a means for countering China.”

All the more so as the uptick comes in tandem with the warming relations with Myanmar.

According to Rajeev Sharma, “China will likely view these close ties with concern, and strategists in Beijing are likely to see India’s moves as part of a zero-sum game in the region. The view from Delhi, though, is that China is being repaid for its so-called ‘string of pearls’ strategy of encircling India. Certainly the latest meeting comes at an awkward time for China, with Burma having riled Beijing by suspending a $3.6 billion China-driven dam project.”