US should deal with India and China as equals

I / Washington February 4, 2010, 15:18 IST

The United States should acknowledge the reality of emergence of India and China as two new power centres and start treating them equals, a new book written by an eminent American journalist has said.

"Americans must wake up to the reality that they will have to deal with China and India as equals," writes acclaimed journalist and author Martin Sieff in her new book 'Shifting Superpowers'.

Sieff was previously chief news analyst for United Press International and has received three Pulitzer Prize nominations. "Both need to be respected and understood on their own vast and complex terms," he said.

 

But, observes Sieff, "the history of US engagement with both nations is replete with examples of excessive hostility and demonizing on the one hand, and naive, uncritical romanticism on the other."

By 2009, the combined population of India and China was more than 2.5 billion—more than one-third of the entire human race, he said, adding that the rise of both nations to great-power status was assured.

"The US retained a dominant position in the world, but the rise of new centers of power, especially at New Delhi and Beijing, guaranteed that the 21st century would be multipolar. The best prospects for maintaining US global leadership and general prosperity lie in recognising the reality that America’s unipolar moment has already passed," he writes.