China looms large even in its absence at India’s Raisina Dialogue, as experts discuss trade and security
- If concerns about China had been muted in the past, they were never far from the surface at this year’s gathering in New Delhi
- Russian foreign minister accused the US of seeking to exclude China but Washington and its allies were prepared to push back
During a panel discussion at last week’s Raisina Dialogue featuring top military officials from India, Australia, France and Japan, the moderator turned to the Indian navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh and asked: “How true is the statement that the number one, two and three concerns of this [Indo-Pacific] region are China, China and China?”
There was stifled laughter from the audience in New Delhi but Singh calmly listed India’s concerns. The Chinese presence in the region, he said, had grown rapidly and Chinese warships had encroached into Indian waters, forcing New Delhi to issue warnings.
The moderator, BBC journalist Yalda Hakim, pressed Singh: “Do they back off?” Not yet, he replied.
The conversation epitomised the irony of the Raisina Dialogue, the India’s Foreign Ministry’s annual gathering of hundreds of experts in diplomacy and security.
China was not officially represented but its actions – particularly its trade and maritime strategies – cast a long shadow over the three-day meeting. Chinese participation in the Raisina Dialogue has always been tepid: no serving Chinese officials have ever attended but Chinese academics and experts have often taken part.
It led one audience member to point out that at last year’s conference, China was the elephant in the room. The concerns were there but remained muted, he said, and such concerns were now being expressed more openly.