Despite significant improvement in bilateral relations between India and China, a geopolitical rivalry for influence and dom inance in post-Cold War Asia is intensifying between the two Asian giants. Nowhere is this contest for regional hegemony between China and India more evident than in Myanmar which occupies a critical strategic position between the two countries. China's inroads into Myanmar since 1990, especially the build-up of naval facilities in the Bay of Bengal and its possible use by the Chinese military, are, from New Delhi's perspective, serious encroachments into India's sphere of influence. Indian strategists now see China as constituting a threat in the east as well as in the north. The growing military nexus between China and Myanmar has recently prompted the Indian Government to reassess its policy towards Yangon and to emphasize the complementarity of interests between India and the United States, India and ASEAN, and India and Japan, in containing China's growing economic and military influence in the Asia-Pacific. India's determination to develop a degree of regional dominance comparable with China means that early in the next century, New Delhi might slip into the role of the main counterweight to its giant neighbour. Both India and China will continue to monitor closely each other's activities to expand influence and gain advantage in the wider Asian region and will attempt to fill any perceived power vacuum or block the other from doing so.
J. Mohan Malik (Thu,) studied this question.