Why Asia is ready for a US-India-Japan alliance

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Democracy has not featured as a theme of U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy. He took office promising to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, not to remake those countries in America's image. The Arab Spring turned into a nightmare, leading Obama to back strongmen in Cairo and Riyadh. Outreach to autocrats in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Havana has sometimes taken precedence over ties with U.S. allies. But in a landmark visit to India in January, Obama changed tack, recognizing that a convergence of interests and values makes the world's largest democracy pivotal to U.S. strategic objectives.

In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who predicted as early as 2006 that Japan's relations with India could surpass those with America to become "the most important bilateral relationship in the world" on the basis of shared interests and values. For his part, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is treating Washington and Tokyo as India's most valuable external partners.

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Coming from very different backgrounds, Obama, Abe and Modi are converging around the idea of an Indo-Pacific alliance to manage China's rise and sustain the peace of Asia. This is a strong challenge to Beijing's belief in its pre-eminence in Asia -- and its attempts to forge a "new type of major power relations" with the U.S. over the heads of its allies.

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In 2014, India became the world's third-largest economy measured by purchasing power parity. Recent figures reveal its economy to be growing faster than China's. India's recent progress, and China's economic slowdown in the context of a political crackdown, challenge the assumption that Beijing owns the future. Countries across Asia and in the West welcome India's rise even as they fear China's growing power. India's democracy leads other nations to view its emergence as an opportunity, even as they hedge against China's resurgence. To Washington, Tokyo and Brussels, India looks like a partner, whereas China looks like a strategic competitor.

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For both American and Japanese officials, India is the only Asian country with the weight and scale to offset China's power and influence. Its navy patrols the sea lanes that are the world's energy superhighway, connecting the oil and gas resources of the Persian Gulf to the big economies of East Asia. India is a historic victim of terrorism and shares a compelling interest with the U.S. and Japan in containing violent extremism. As its economy grows, India increasingly will have the resources to act as a provider of security from East Africa to the Western Pacific -- and in the Middle East, where seven million Indians are resident. But to rise, India needs all the capital, technology and defense hardware it can get; the U.S. and Japan are among the most likely external providers of these resources, and have the most compelling stake in India's success.

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A rather long article , have posted some relevant parts. Daniel Twining: Why Asia is ready for a US-India-Japan alliance- Nikkei Asian Review



The question that arises is how does India manage the tango with US-Japan on one side and China on the other hand.

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