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'Growing China, India power can't be ignored'
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-08-05 08:50
The United States will remain the leading power for the foreseeable future
but the rising influence of China and India can no longer be ignored,
Singapore's defence minister said, AFP reported.
Japan is also playing a
more active role in the global strategic arena, making the future of the
Asia-Pacific region dependent on the moves by these three regional giants,
Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said Thursday.
"The military and political power of the US has been a pre-eminent factor for
a long time and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future," Teo said in
a speech to Asia-Pacific military officers at a seminar here.
"But China and India can no longer be ignored. They both have aspirations to
be regional, if not global, powers. They are fast gaining economic clout and in
the process they are reshaping the geopolitical contours of the region."
The stability of relations between and among China, Japan and India as well
as their individual bilateral ties with the United States are crucial to the
region's future, he said.
"With their sheer size and strategic weight, what these regional powers do
will, like shifts in major tectonic plates, reshape the geopolitical contours of
the region," Teo said.
"The complexion of the Asia-Pacific strategic environment will be coloured by
how these three regional powers conduct themselves in relation to one another
and to the US.
"The Sino-US, US-Japan, Sino-Japanese, Sino-Indian and US-India relationships
make up the complex environment which will determine the region's future."
China, the world's most populous nation, now sees itself as a regional power,
while India "has been casting its gaze beyond the subcontinent," Teo said.
Japan, the world's second largest economy, is claiming a more active strategic
role globally.
But the relationship between Washington and Beijing "is of the greatest
significance" because of their strategic weights and the "warininess" with which
both view each other, he said.
"It would be to the detriment of regional peace and stability if the US and
China get locked into an adversarial relationship. This need not happen and
countries in this region would certainly not want to see such a confrontation,"
Teo said.
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