The battle lines seem to have been drawn in East Asia for hegemony as the military exercise last week in the Bay of Bengal suggest. On one side we have what is called as Quad or Democratic axis –India, US, Japan and Australia also Singapore and the other being Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ( SCO) which includes China, Russia and Central Asian republics.
This is just a reflection of the new strategic alignment in Asia which in turn reflect the realities after the end of cold war and the emergence of China as a economic power.
There is no better news for India than this . India should derive economic and military benefit of the new alliance . I would look at Indo –US nuclear deal and recent economic cooperation with Japan as steps in this direction.
Will the power game in Asia lead to a Europe style grouping of NATO vs. Warsaw pact countries and cold war or something similar only time will tell. However what differentiates the present situation is the economic dependence of the two groups on one another. All the counties of the two groupings would like to maintain economic cooperation on one hand and political posturing like the recent exercise on the other hand.
At present the Quad seem to have an upper hand given the fact that SCO countries and mainly China have an export led economies which is a huge risk .
