A warning to US, China? India to look at its own interest in Indo-Pacific

India will look at its own interest in the Indo-Pacific region where China and the US are vying for influence, India's envoy Gautam Bambawale has said here.

India along with Australia and Japan is a member of the US-backed yet-to-be-formalised "Quad" to counter China's rise in the Indo-Pacific region.

Even though China has dismissed such a set up as "sea foam", it is worried over the four democracies ganging up in the waters.

In an interview to state-controlled China Global Television Network, Bambawale spoke on various aspects of the Sino-Indian ties including the pesky boundary dispute.

Asked whether India will take sides in the Indo-Pacific region, he said New Delhi will look at own interests in the region.
 

"The only side India is on is India's own side. In other words, our foreign policy and all our policies are geared towards meeting India's interests and India's national interests," he said.

In the post-Cold War period, India has worked very closely with all countries across the globe.

"We have improved our relations with big countries and small countries because we believe that we can obtain and gain from each of these countries of what is required for India's national development, especially investments and technology," the outgoing envoy said.

Bambawale will retire in November and will be succeeded by India's current Ambassador to Myanmar, Vikram Misri.

"We try to obtain it from any country which is willing to help us," he said.

"So, we have managed to keep excellent relations not only with China and Russia and Japan but also completely changed our relationship with the US. We will do whatever in India's best interests."

The Indian Ambassador said Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping cleared many misunderstandings between the two countries.

He said India and China have many things in common and the only issue that divides them was the boundary dispute.

"India and China have similar viewpoints on global issues. We both want to have an open system where the multilateral system works," he said, adding that both the countries can work on many issues like globalisation.

"But even as we work for the resolution of the boundary problem between us, we have agreed that we will maintain peace and tranquillity at our borders and for the last 30 years we have succeeded in that," the Indian envoy said.