The clash of egos

    Cold War is a kind of unhealthy competition between countries in terms of technology, arms race, conquest, trade and other diplomatic ties which if unchecked can lead to an actual war leading to disastrous consequences. Today we might be witnessing a bitter Cold War between the US and China.

    Each nation will have ambitions for growth and development. In pursuance of these goals, sometimes the nations lose themselves and develop an excessive egocentric approach towards other countries. This ego further aggravates into self-enduring selfishness without the concern for others. China and US are on path of degradation and moral destruction in this nuclear armed world.

    The Chinese have an aggressive stand towards all its neighbours including the South China Sea claims. They are trying to increase their presence in the Indian Ocean region to have a strategic advantage over the trade. China has been using development of infrastructure as a strategy to trap countries in a debt which at a later time will be used as a strategic tool to arm twist the countries in China's interest. Its not that the other countries are not realising this, but what choice do they have? With China emerging as a global Asian power predominantly in terms of economy, it has started to play a big brother role by dominating the entire Asian region. The recent border skirmishes of India and China was an episode as a result of the trade war with US, inclination of India towards the US, Article 370 issue and the part that India plays in the Quad grouping. It was an indirect message to the US that China will take extreme steps on its neighbours if US tries to use any of its neighbours to counter China's growth.

    The US is focussed on the "US first policy" thus adopting a protectionist stance mainly to curb the growth of China. China was very quick to respond and establish a trade war with US. Then the pandemic has caused a crippling of the world economy. Even during this crisis, the Cold War continues. China has inked a deal with Iran which is on sanctions of the US and stole the strategic advantage of the outer circle formation of India.  By drawing all countries into its economic manifold by exploiting India's weakness on delivering projects, China will dominate the Indian oceans and India loses its strategic advantage. If  unchecked, the Indian Ocean might need to be renamed as Chinese ocean ! China being aware of the India's growth in the region and that the US will use India to check China's growth, China is pressurising India by grabbing the projects of neighbouring countries. The US is playing its own game by pressurising UK to ban all HUAWEI company products sighting security issues and even threatening UK to cancel the security sharing agreement.

    In this war of egos, it is the developing countries like India that is sandwiched in between and will face the economic brunt. Its high time that India reshapes its ties with both China and US, take an intermediary role and  try to negotiate between the two to come to a consensus and help in maintaining global peace and tranquility.