June 29, 2023

The US has been ramping up efforts to rope in India to play a bigger role in its so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy clearly aiming to contain China, as proven in the latest move in which Washington's top envoy to East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink proposed building a greater US-India partnership over issues concerning the South China Sea.

However, there are concerns that India, as an external force outside the South China Sea, would only complicate the situation and jeopardize the hard-won stability and peace by increasing their footprint in the region, analysts said on Thursday.

The US and India declared themselves "among the closest partners in the world" last week, during a state visit to Washington by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

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