China is unlikely to gain from the border standoff with India as the road being built by it in the Sikkim sector’s Dokalam area leads to nowhere and this would push India more closer to the US and Japan, an American expert said today.
The standoff will also add to the mistrust among the generation of young Indians who don’t have a lot of experience with conflict with China, Jeff Smith, director of the Asian Security Programmes, Kraemer Strategy Fellow, at the American Foreign Policy Council, said.
It will, in fact, push India closer to the US and Japan, and generate an anti-China sentiment in India, he said.
“What are the stakes for China? It’s on a road to nowhere, essentially,” he told a Washington audience during a panel discussion on India-China border standoff.
“I’m not exactly sure what China gets out of building this road. We know what the outcome is going to be, it’s souring ties with India significantly with the Modi administration, which were already on a downward trajectory.
“It’s giving the Indian military all the ammunition it needs to lobby for more upgrades, to order infrastructure, to push India closer to the US and Japan as it’s been moving already, something that China says it doesn’t want,” he said at the event organised by Woodrow Wilson International Centre.