International think tanks suggest that soon Russia-China strategic partnership will form a NATO type military and G7 type economic alliance. India and Brazil will be invited to join the alliance.
Since the Soviet Union and India were allies against China in the Cold War, this might seem reasonable. But democratic India allied with Moscow only because China was a bigger enemy. China is getting bigger and looking at the Indian Ocean as a vital artery for China's oil-hungry economy. It seems far-fetched that India would join up with China now. India can match China in economic power and India won't like Chinese forays into the Indian Ocean. Growing US-India cooperation could evolve into an alliance of our own. Especially if we sell India weapons, as India wants with reports they seek to buy US F-16s. We should sell them to India. No decision has been made but it looks good:
[U.S. ambassador David] Mulford said the United States was keen to improve its low market share of India's defense equipment program as the two nations strengthen a strategic relationship aided by India's economic liberalization and a common cause in Washington's global war on terror.
"We are interested in becoming a major player in India," Mulford said, adding military cooperation was part of the strategic relationship.
At the five-day, bi-annual Aero India show, the U.S. will display its P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft and C-130 Hercules transport plane made by Lockheed and the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter made by Boeing Co's McDonnell Douglas unit, with a possible eye on the Indian market.
We would get a solid and democratic ally. What would Russia get? An ally? Get real. Embracing the Chinese dragon means becoming their client state. Russia is foolishly selling China whatever it wants to mount an invasion of Taiwan and hold off our forces:
Until recently, Taiwan was considered safe beyond the reach of Chinese guns cross the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait. Its air force, equipped with U.S.-made fighters, was thought capable of stopping a Chinese attack mid-strait.
But China's weapons purchases make clear its determination to erase that advantage.
Its acquisitions from Russia alone would equip an air force and navy for a mid-size country — scores of supersonic Su-27 fighters, destroyers, submarines and anti-ship missiles.
Does Russia really think they can save their Pacific provinces by appeasing China? Will they really aspire to be a junior partner and future victim of a powerful China if China successfully takes Taiwan and pushes us back from the western Pacific instead of being an ally in a Western alliance?
I'd rather the Russians become our allies. But the Russians are too fixated on regaining their empire (as their Ukraine intrigues show) to think rationally, however. Moscow really does appear to prefer a suicidal pact with China over an alliance with a potential friend and ally that they view as responsible for their loss of empire. Sure, they are right about the loss of empire thing; but their future should lie with America and the West.
Moscow will not survive an embrace of China.
Does the Cold War generation in Russia need to pass from the scene before the Russians get a clue?
