India emerges a key player in Asia-Pacific power games

• Two very important statements from Kevin Andrews, Australia’s foreign minister, and Kevin Rudd, the country’s former prime minister, have opened up the scenario of a newly developing strategic balance in the Indian Ocean and the Asia Pacific regions.
• The two important things are- India’s growing importance in the region, with active US support and considerable decrease of Chinese influence in the region.
• As the US has shifted the focus of its foreign policy to the Asia Pacific, the Indian Ocean has become doubly important for China.
• In response to China’s sensitivities, India and the US kept the exercise within a bilateral parameter and involved other nations like Japan only when the matter moved out of the Bay of Bengal.
• Kevin Rudd’s description of the Indian economy being worth $2 trillion and his open advocacy for increased Indian presence in the Asia-Pacific market has wider connotations.

Source: DefenceNews