Chinese think-tank: India's foreign policy has become vibrant, assertive

Beijing: India's foreign policy has become vibrant and assertive under the Modi government with its risk-taking ability also on the rise, according to a top official of a prominent state-run Chinese think-tank.

Rong Ying, Vice President of China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), a think-tank affiliated to Chinese Foreign Ministry, said over the past three years, India's diplomacy has been vibrant and assertive, and has formed a distinctive and unique "Modi Doctrine", a strategy for the rise of India as a great power in the new situation.

In an article in the CIIS journal, the first of its kind by a Chinese think tank on the Modi government so far, Rong, who also served as a diplomat in India, took a critical look at India's relations with China, South and South East Asia, India's closer relations with US and Japan, saying Indian foreign policy under him

has become increasingly assertive while offering mutual benefits.

On India-China ties, Rong said since Modi took office, the development of overall relations between the two countries has maintained "steady momentum".

"The Dong Lang (Dokalam) incident taking place at the Sikkim section of the China-India borders has not only highlighted the border issue, but also for a time seemed to imperil the overall relationship between the two countries," he said.

Rong, also a senior research fellow at the CIIS, said India and China should stick to the strategic consensus of mutual support for each other's development.

On the future formula for ties, he said as major countries on the rise, India and China are both partners and competitors.

"There is competition in cooperation and cooperation in competition. The coexistence of cooperation and competition will become the norm. This is the status quo of China-India relations, which cannot be evaded," he said.

"We must implement the strategic consensus of the two leaders," he said, adding that China is not a "hurdle" for India s development but a major opportunity for India.

"It will not and cannot stop the rise of India. The biggest obstacle to India s development is India itself," he said.