Indian military and strategic considerations for Singapore

• Sardaukar

  10 Feb 04, 19:36

  Hi guys I was just thinking you know how we got that deal to train troops in India?With India planning to field upwards of 3 carrier groups complete with cruisers,destroyers,frigates,corvettes but lacking the ports to do it,maybe that FTA we r signing with them would allow us to give [i]friendly help[/i] to our South Asian friend.
  
  In the long term,it would be wise to align ourselves with the emerging powers of the region,namely India and China.The US will continue to be the superpower for another 2 decades perhaps?Iran is a wild card as well as Indonesia.Seeing as to how the future is looking,should be spread our eggs in different baskets or continue to go the USA-China way we seem to be going?
  
  Seeing as to how it is in our interests not to let ASEAN be dominated by any single power,should we align ourselves 3 ways,with USA,India and China as our "big friends" or concentrate on China and India?
  
  Do you think that we should aid the Indians in giving them tech knowledge for upgrading their ports.Do it to counterbalance Chinc influence in burma?We did it to Changi Naval Base so why not help a big country out.In long term they will be more grateful and will benefit us?
  
  What r your opinions?
• Gedanken

  10 Feb 04, 20:21

  My vote would be for alignment with all three nations, even though the politics of such an arrangement would have to be handled carefully. While India and China are up and coming, I don't think the US would fall so far as to lose its military and economic influence in the forseeable future. Right now the safe hedge would be a good compromised between the big boy on the block and the up-and-comers.
  
  I don't think gratitude comes into play here. I believe Margaret Thatcher once said something along the lines of "There is no friendship between countries, only common interests" and Stalin said "Gratitude is a disease of dogs". If Singapore offers anything attractive to any of these countries, we may hope for favourable conditions when dealing with them, but trying to call in a favour is unlikely to work.
• vaxjunior

  10 Feb 04, 21:52

  http://www.ntu.edu.sg/idss/Perspective/research_050339.htm
  
  An article on how Singapore balances (or tries to) the powers to be in our regional and global contexts.
  
  IMHO, it has always been Singapore's policy to be neutral and work towards making ties and reaping benefits that directly impinges on our interests. Tying up with India and US has been in the cards as it balances China. (remember India is technically still at some dispute with China over their common border) I am not sure we will be as cosy in the military angle with China as we are now with US and India.