Author: Reuters
Publication: The Hindu
Date: November 15, 2000
China, India and Russia
could risk regional security as they seek greater roles in Asia, the United
States military has said.
US Pacific Air Command
Chief Admiral Dennis Blair warned against "zero-sum, balance-of-power mindsets"
and said ambitious Asian countries must choose to flex their muscles in
a restrained and predictable way.
"Leaders in China, India
and Russia, and other States, talk of a multi-polar world where major States
represent centres of power, continually manoeuvring to create balances,"
Blair told the Asia Society in Melbourne during a visit to Australia.
"This is the world of
Bismarck and 19th century Europe," he said, referring to the brinkmanship
of the 19th century German "Iron Chancellor."
Blair, who is to meet
in Canberra on Thursday with Australian Defence Minister John Moore, said
military plans and actions by China, India and Russia must be designed
to "reassure and involve neighbours," not to threaten them with arms races.
"For a peaceful future
for Asia, these countries must redefine or expand their power in predictable,
restrained and constructive ways," he said.
Blair also said Japan
faced a challenge with its changing security policy. "Its challenge
is to maintain its alliance with the United States and reassure its neighbours
that it has learned the lessons of its history, while it assumes the obligations
as well as the benefits of a normal nation of its economic stature."
