India to play a key role in countering China, says US Navy chief

United States Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday on 27 August said that India will be a crucial partner for America in the future, playing a key role in countering China.

Addressing a seminar -- hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington --Gilday said that India presents China with a two-front problem, reported Nikkei Asia.

"They now force China to not only look east, toward the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, but they now have to be looking over their shoulder at India," he said.

"I've spent more time on a trip to India than I have with any other country because I consider them to be a strategic partner for us in the future", he added.

Referring to his five-day visit to India last October, he said, "The Indian Ocean battlespace is becoming increasingly more important for us. The fact that India and China currently have a bit of a skirmish along their border ... it's strategically important."

He expressed his concern that the border clashes between India and China in the Himalayas pose a two-front problem for Beijing and has been gaining traction.

Earlier in June, former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby -- during Quad (the US, Japan, India and Australia) meeting in Japan -- had said that while India would not directly contribute in a local battle over Taiwan, it could draw China's attention to the Himalayan border, the report added.

"What the United States and Japan need India to do is to be as strong as possible in South Asia and effectively draw Chinese attention so that they have a major second-front problem," said Colby.

In the meantime, India draws the same benefit from China's difficulties in facing a strong US-Japan alliance around Taiwan, he said.