BEIJING: The Indian reaction over security and defense cooperation between China and Pakistan was obviously an over-interpretation of actual situation as it was conducive to promoting the rebalance of power in South Asia.
The security and defense cooperation between China and Pakistan can help enhance the confidence of other South Asian countries to strengthen their strategic independent capability by reinforcing their national defense construction, according to an article published by Global Times here on Thursday.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to further deepen cooperation between the two countries was inked during Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe’s visit to Islamabad. It soon caught the eyeballs of Indian media, particularly its tabloids.
This pack of sensationalists argued that the new defense deal was signed by China and Pakistan to harm their “common foe – India.” They claimed that it “is changing military dynamics in South Asia.”
This is obviously an over-interpretation of the actual situation. Since China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners, it is natural for the two countries to not only keep high-level strategic mutual trust, but also deepen their military and defense cooperation.
Such interactions do not necessarily have any connection with considerations regarding India.
Due to the pandemic, some senior Chinese officials’ foreign visits have had to be postponed. It is highly likely that Wei’s Pakistan tour was planned long time ago, but only realized until now.
It is a tour to maintain strategic cooperative partnership between Beijing and Islamabad – nothing more, nothing less.
It’s hoped politicians and pundits in India will not continue to think that China-Pakistan ties are aimed at India – and create antagonistic actions from this wrong-headed rhetoric.
It could backfire from being a fantasy and materialize into a reality. That won’t be good news for India.
The world witnessed huge changes in geopolitics this year. More are immediately in the making.
India is also gradually setting aside its traditional principle of nonalignment, while getting increasingly closer to anti-China forces, especially the US. For China, if cooperation with Pakistan can constitute a certain kind of deterrent toward India, it may be considered as a good approach to balance regional powers.
But in fact, as the two countries seem to keep their high-level defense cooperation, their joint work in military field is far from reaching the level of that in a real all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. There is much room for improvement in this regard.
Both China and Pakistan are shouldering the task of safeguarding their national security and territorial integrity. The two good neighbors need to enhance their national strategic deterrent capabilities and upgrade their conventional militaries.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
