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Relationship between India & China will turn combative, says former foreign secretary
TNN / Sep 11, 2024, 00:12 ISTChennai: Former foreign secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale on Tuesday said in the next decade, there would be more wars between India and China, and the relationship would turn combative.
Addressing a gathering at Raj Bhavan, Gokhale said, "In the next 10 years, the situation will become tense. The combat between India and China will not just be on land but will also be on waters as China's presence in the Indian Ocean is becoming visible.
Armed co-existence will become the norm."
Gokhale added, "Grey-zone warfare (a military operation falling short of conventional warfare), like the Galwan clash in 2020, will increase substantially between the two countries." Earlier, governor R N Ravi, in his address, called China a "disease" and India's "enemy".
Gokhale said China was trying to erode India's stature in South Asia. "China is creating an impression among our friendly countries that the ties between India and the USA, Japan, and Australia are nothing but NATO in the making in Asia. Like NATO's intrusion in Europe, which resulted in the Russia-Ukraine war, China is propagating that India's relationship with the Quad countries will result in a war in this region," Gokhale said.
Speaking about China's perception of Indo-American ties, Gokhale said China in the past did not recognise India as a power, but now their perception is changing.
"China considers only two countries, the USA and Russia, as countries on a par with it and did not even consider India as its competitor. But now, according to me, the perception is changing. China thinks that India has tilted towards the U.S. and thinks that no more is India a neutral country. China thinks that India is becoming a threat to them and so there will be a completely different approach towards India," Gokhale said.
