NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a rare national address on live television last month to boast that India had destroyed a satellite in low orbit, establishing itself as a"space power" alongside the US, Russia and China.
"It's impossible to keep pace with China," said Mr Vishnu Prakash, a former Indian ambassador to South Korea and consul general in Shanghai."We cannot get into checkbook diplomacy with China. We don't have that kind of economic muscle." "Delhi will play a long game. As India's economy grows, this will still eventually translate into the world's third-largest defence budget."
Still, India continues to lag China on every geopolitical metric, according to the Lowy Institute's Asia power index, which ranks countries according to economic resources, military capabilities and diplomatic influence. "The three arms of the Indian military continue to believe they'll fight a war separately," Assoc Prof Jacob said.
The US in particular has sought to engage India, renaming its Asia-facing military operations to the Indo-Pacific Command last year and seeking to enlist it in a group known as"The Quad" along with Japan and Australia.