While India is under pressure from the West to demonstrate democratic credentials, its strategic interests have been winning out in relations with Burma in recent years. Due to such strategic interests, New Delhi has only gently nudged the Burmese junta on the issue of democracy, gradually gaining a sense of trust at the highest echelons of Burma's ruling elite. India would be loath to lose this relationship. As such, India remains opposed to Western sanctions on the country. Burma's recent moves towards democratic transition will give India a larger strategic space to maneuver, and compared to Beijing, New Delhi will be a more attractive partner for Naypyidaw as it tries to find a modus vivendi with the West.
India is emerging as a serious player in the Asian strategic landscape as smaller states in East Asia reach out to it for trade, diplomacy and, potentially, as a key regional balancer. The "Look East" policy initiated by one of the most visionary prime ministers India has ever had, P.V. Narasimha Rao, is now the cornerstone of India's engagement with the world's most economically dynamic region. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear that his government's foreign-policy priority will be east and southeast Asia, poised for sustained growth in the 21st century.
China is too big and too powerful to be ignored by the regional states. But the states in China's vicinity are now seeking to expand their strategic space by reaching out to other regional and global powers. Smaller states in the region are now looking to India to act as a balancer in view of China's growing influence and America's anticipated retrenchment from the region in the near future, while larger states see India as an attractive engine for regional growth. To live up to its full potential and meet the region's expectations, India must do a more convincing job of emerging as a credible strategic partner of the region. Neither India nor the regional states in East Asia have incentive to define their relationship in opposition to China. But they are certainly interested in leveraging their ties with other states to gain benefits from China and bring a semblance of equality in their relationships. Great power politics in the region have only just begun.
