India may lead Asian version of Nato

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW DELHI: Pipping Pakistan as a main player in the region, United States is contemplating to establish an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, putting India in a prominent position. <br /><br />It is an apparent move to resuscitate the dormant concept of Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO). Pakistan had been a main player in the regional defence alliance, but is no more a choice of the USA to occupy the driving seat. The move is aimed at establishing an Asian version of the Nato, a defence arrangement to fill in the void created by the dissolution of the SEATO on June 30 1977.<br /><br />On a recommendation from the Pentagon, the US administration plans to form a separate military alliance putting India in a prominent position compared to other Asian countries with an assurance of constructing a long-term strategic partnership with India to contain Washington''s potential Asian adversaries, Pakistani daily <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The News</span> reported from Brussels quoting a defence strategy report available in Europe.<br /><br />Ever debilitating democratic deficit in Pakistan and country''s failure to build sustainable democratic institutions over several decades has changed Washington''s choice of the country expected to play the principal US ally in Asia, the paper said quoting the report.<br /><br />The new Pentagon policy to achieve the US strategic interests in Asia is designed on the bases of the doctrine of outgoing US Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, who recommended the US administration "strengthen political, economic and military-to-military relations with those Asian states that share our democratic values and national interests�. “That spells India," the report said.<br /><br />Chinese media, including <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The People''s Daily</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Beijing Time</span> have also taken note of Blackwill doctrine and reports on Pentagon''s recommendation of establishing Asian version of the Nato, the paper said.<br /><br />"In the eyes of the United States, India holds an important strategic position linking the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. By strengthening its ties with the South Asian country, the United States can not only consolidate and expand its strategic presence in South Asia but also further squeeze Russia''s and China''s strategic clout out of the region," the defence strategy report said.<br /><br />According to the report, the decision on the prospects of a new security system in the shape of an Asian version of Nato was taken in a structured round of talks between Pentagon senior advisers and their New Delhi counterparts held in late May. This was followed up with several rounds of Indo-US talks on resuscitating the concept of SEATO through an Asian version of Nato. <br /><br />Washington''s basic purpose for closer ties with India by creating an Asian version of Nato is to extend its status as the world''s sole superpower, the report underlined.<br /><br />The report added that several SEATO-style US-India military exercises in near future would mark the preparations to materialise the plan to establish a Nato-type of military alliance in Asia. <br /><br />The SEATO consisting of United States, Pakistan, Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand held its final military exercise on February 20, 1976, one year before it came to an end.<br /></div> </div>