Chinese state media said that India wants to be the “most beautiful woman” wooed by everyone, particularly Beijing and Washington. It played down the decision of India to sign a logistic agreement with the US. The proposed deal is stalled due to distrust between the two, said the Chinese media.

An article in the state-run Global Times said that, “Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India’s ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers.” The title of the article was  ‘Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing’.

Meanwhile, Manohar Parrikar,Defence Minister of India, began his first visit to Beijing to have talks with the officials of China.

The article said, “The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China.”

“This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War,” it said.

“Evidently enough, it needs to feel its way forward and try not to agitate China by crossing the bottom line and consequently it declines to discuss the prospect of joint patrols in the South China Sea, despite the obvious interest and much enthusiasm from its American counterpart,” it added.

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Earlier, a three day visit by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter was concluded in India. He announced that he and his counterpart has agreed to all the issues concerning a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) and the text would be finalized from both the sides very soon.

The Chinese media report highlighted the decision of India in signing the LSA, saying that, “Despite a whole range of strategic issues being covered in the visit, the topic of the logistics agreement itself has triggered speculation among international media that both sides are boarding the same boat to contain China.” The purpose behind LSA is sharing military bases for logistical purposes like refuelling and repair.

“Therefore it is very much similar to the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), a traditional agreement the US has with many of its NATO allies, That’s why it has triggered speculation that both sides are moving toward a military alliance arrangement”, the article said.

In 2007, an ACSA was signed by Sri Lanka and India for the logistics supplies exchange during humanitarian operations, peacekeeping missions, and joint exercises.

- Sumana