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Analysts: India-China Clash Will Prompt New Delhi to Build Closer Ties with
US

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - Spiraling tensions between India and China over rival
   claims to territory in the icy Himalayas could push New Delhi to
   embrace closer ties with the United States and countries like Japan and
   Australia as ties with Beijing come under severe strain.

   Whether the dramatic escalation that has led to a huge military
   deployment by the nuclear-armed Asian giants along their disputed
   border intensifies or is resolved diplomatically, it will lead to
   "strategic and economic choices by India that may explicitly have an
   anti-China orientation," according to Harsh Pant, director of studies
   at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

   Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's response to the crisis will also
   influence the trajectory of New Delhi's ties with its neighbors in
   South Asia, where Beijing has been challenging India's predominant
   position, and determine whether the nationalist leader can fulfill his
   goal of raising India's global profile.

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