Dealing with the dragon at our doorsteps

Recently China has acquired an aircraft career of mixed Ukrainian-Russian pedigree. Presently, it is undergoing sea trials and would become fully operational in the next few months - expert estimates vary from three to six months. It goes without saying that this event directly impacts India's strategic configurations. Capable of carrying three dozen aircraft plus an array of missiles of variegated ranges and roles, it is bigger than the two aircraft careers with the Indian Navy. This does not call for sounding the war bugle but certainly should impel us to take notice of the increasing Chinese reach - not just in the Asia-Pacific region but also across the Indian Ocean. Let us not forget that China has been developing a port facility in Myanmar at Sittwe as well as helping develop ports in Sri Lanka's Hambantota and Pakistan's Gwadar. There are indications of Chinese interests in Bangladesh's Chittagong deep-sea port too. While we may reassure ourselves that these developments are only to protect China's mercantile interests (more than 60% of its energy supplies come by the sea lanes) it would be unwise to ignore the strategic-military consequences. Nothing that China does is without long term military calculations; we learnt this to our great cost by the series of events that led to the 1962 Chinese invasion of India.

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