Substitute “China” with “Japan” and “India” with “Britain” and the following story could have appeared in the newspapers prior to December 7, 1941, “Pearl Harbor Day.”
Soon-to-be-departed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who once announced that she was the “Senator from Punjab,” set the stage for a U.S.-Chinese naval confrontation in the South China Sea by urging India, where she and former President Bill Clinton have sizable investments in the nuclear energy and software sectors, to dispatch Indian naval vessels to the contested maritime region.
India, which is not a claimant to territory in the South China Sea, nevertheless, said it’s prepared to act to protect its maritime and economic interests in the area. According to WMR’s sources in the region, Indian naval chief, D.K Joshi, outlined India’s policy after China announced it would start boarding and seizing ships that enter South China Sea waters it claims after January 1, 2013.
One of the legacies of Mrs. Clinton’s time at the State Department is her encirclement of China with governments that are advancing America’s interests in the region at the expense of China’s. Using India to confront China in the South China Sea avoids getting the United States involved militarily in the conflict while assuring South China Sea claimant countries like the Philippines and Vietnam that other non-claimant naval powers like India have a stake in the maritime dispute with China.
Joshi stated that India, as a “major regional power, has to protect its legitimate interests in peaceful commercial activities in the territorial waters of friendly countries, where it has been invited to help in exploration. In the present case, in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Vietnam.”
Joshi said India’s interests involve the “free movement of ships and commerce in the region.” India is, therefore, challenging China’s policy, set forth in 2011, that it considers the South China Sea as a “core interest” at par with Tibet and Taiwan. China, which has a historical border dispute with India, is not looking kindly at India’s move into the South China Sea, especially on behalf of Vietnam, with which China, in 1979, fought a short but intense border war.
India, Singapore, and the United States, all non-claimants to South China Sea territory, have stated that if China boards and seizes any vessels in the region after January 1, they will look on it as a violation by China of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Joint naval exercises during the past few years between the United States and the Philippines and Vietnam have incurred the ire of Beijing. Last April, U.S. and Philippines naval vessels participated in the Balikatan 2012 exercise in the South China Sea. The same month, the U.S. and India conducted the joint Malabar 2012 naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal.
By having the Indian Navy conduct naval exercises in the South China Sea, the United States avoids being blamed by China for ratcheting up tensions. However, the U.S. strategy, as outlined by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, is to have U.S. naval forces nearby to respond to any crisis in the region. The U.S. is transferring 60 percent of its naval assets to the Pacific region.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2012 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
