The decision, which was greeted by silence on both sides, is the first clear indication that India has a role to play in the strategically important Asia-Pacific region, where, until recently, New Delhi wasn't considered to be a power to contend with. The agreement, though, has raised a flurry of questions from India's other strategic partners in the region, chiefly the US. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was in Beijing around the time Gen Liang was here, said, "As I have said before, our two nations are trying to do something that has never been done in history, which is to write a new answer to the question of what happens when an established power and a rising power meet." If China and India can at least agree to work in the Asia-Pacific region, it could mean an opening for New Delhi in the South China Sea, where Indian oil companies are prospecting for energy off Vietnam. Although ONGC, the Indian oil major, had decided to give up an oil block there, a request by Vietnam has kept India in the region. This could not have gone unnoticed. India has also agreed to do joint anti-piracy patrols off Somalia in the Indian Ocean Region, which India regards as its strategic backyard. For India, the challenge is to be able to deal with the rise of China, while keeping its own growth trajectory intact, and contend with hurdles like border dispute and burgeoning economic relationship. India has, in the recent past, increased its activities in that area. Apart from a growing defence ties with Vietnam, India and Japan are building up their own defence relationship. Indian ships exercised with their Japanese counterparts off Tokyo recently, while the Japanese defence minister is expected to visit here in the coming weeks, in preparation for a bilateral summit visit to Japan by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India is also separately building a defence and security relationship with South Korea. India's junior minister for petroleum R P N Singh recently visited Cambodia, a key Chinese ally, to explore possibilities of energy exploration. Cambodia, as the ASEAN chair, was instrumental in preventing a joint statement by the ASEAN earlier this year, a development that shocked the 10-nation grouping. But China too operates in India's backyard, notably with Pakistan in the PoK — building roads and other infrastructure projects. Pakistani reports recently said Islamabad had cancelled a contract with a Singaporean company to operate the strategic Gwadar port and given it to a Chinese firm. With both countries exhibiting reach and capability, the agreement to work together in areas that are considered strategically important is, according to Indian sources, a kind of confidence-building measure at a time when tensions are escalating.
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