US admiral Willard says India will have to tackle China's assertiveness on its own

New Delhi

9 September 2010

The US shared India's concerns about China's assertiveness and its presence

in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), according to the visiting US Pacific Command chief

Admiral Robert Willard. However, he maintained that the issue had to be tackled by the

Indian military on its own. He qualified it by saying that "any change in military relations

or military manoeuvres by China that raises concerns of India" could be considered as

certainly occurring within his area of responsibility.

Admiral Willard told a press conference here Thursday that he discussed with India's top

security leadership about the reports of Chinese military personnel being in PoK, though

not much information was exchanged on it. In his two-day visit here, he met national

security adviser Shivshankar Menon, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, Navy chief

Admiral Nirmal Verma, Army chief Gen VK Singh and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar

to discuss regional security and the growing military relationship between the two

countries.

Replying to a question about China's increasing assertiveness in South China Sea and

its implications, Admiral Willard said his purpose as Pacific Commander was to ensure

that "what we are seeing out of China or anyone else doesn't erupt into a conflict."

As Pacific Commander, the Admiral said, his first and foremost responsibility was to take

forward the US-China military-to-military relations. "We are anxious to do that. It is not

easy to do and its been suspended for some time. So we have a lot of work to do to

improve our relationship with the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA)," he said. "The

assertiveness that we have witnessed in the maritime regions around China has

complicated that fact but not eliminated it. We think it is a regional issue and many of the

US' allies and partners are concerned about. It was expressed well in ASEAN Regional

Forum," he noted.