Indian-Chinese Relations in the Context of US’ Rebalancing towards Asia-Pacific

This paper highlights the main stages and features of the relationship between China and India in recent decades. In this article we analyze the “peaceful rise of China 2.0†, aimed at “a new type of relations between major powers†on equal footing and India’s current strategy of foreign policy, “Act East†, which is associated with “neighborhood first†and targets mainly the expansion of the Indian influence. In the wider context of the reconfiguration of forces and alliances in the Indo-Pacific region, we examine the new US strategy towards Asia-Pacific and its implications for the relations between China and India. The analysis of the connections on the three sides of the US-China-India triangle reveals that: (1) India is a cautious supporter of the US rebalancing towards Asia-Pacific. (2) India does not accept the role of second-tier economic power in Asia-Pacific, which causes new tensions in the relationship with P. R. China. (3) The offers received by India from the US to cooperate in various fields (military, defense, technology exchange) are considered as means to counteract the Chinese influence in Asia-Pacific. Based on this evidence, we conclude that although China and India have complementary economies, and the potential for cooperation is significant, nevertheless tensions associated to the reconfiguration of forces regionally and hence worldwide have a negative impact on the Indo-Chinese relations.