China's border row with India has misfired, says regional security expert

China's three-week border stand-off during April in Ladakh, in Indian-administered Kashmir, had misfired, an Indian security expert told a forum in Manila, saying Beijing's move galvanised Indian leaders into finally sealing an historic security deal with Japan.

The dispute strained ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours, but both sides pulled troops back ahead of a visit to New Delhi by Premier Li Keqiang, who agreed to fresh talks to settle their long-running border row.

Retired army major general Vinod Saighal, saw the subsequent India-Japan deal last month as possibly a signal that Japan and India were in the process of setting themselves up as the linchpin of a new security system in Asia, that could attract Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea and Myanmar.

He said Australia and Indonesia would also be viewing it favourably.

"The US had been pushing India in this direction as part of its rebalancing strategy. After the US used the term Indo-Pacific, Australia and Japan have embraced it," he said.

Saighal, who wrote Restructuring South Asian Security, was speaking at a forum on "India's expanding maritime interests in Southeast Asia" at the University of the Philippines Asian Centre.

Saighal said India could help provide "a security architecture in the region to restrain China so that the cost of aggression would be much too heavy. If you have that architecture in place, China will not attempt anything".