Natural ally

China is the world's biggest exporter and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. So it's not surprising that China garners the lion's share of attention when Western political and business leaders talk about the rise of Asia.

And since the country's transformation from developing country to economic powerhouse with global ambitions and double-digit growth rates takes place with breathtaking speed, it's understandable that politicians in the West are still busy trying to wrap their heads around how to deal with this new giant.

However, by focusing too much on China, the West risks neglecting India, a country that some experts believe possesses an even bigger potential and more shared interests with Europe and the US than China.

To be sure at the moment China, which started economic reforms 15 years prior to India, is in a different league economically than its neighbor.

"We are not in the same ballpark as the Chinese," Reuben Abraham, executive director at the Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, told Deutsche Welle. "They are so far ahead of us that it is absolutely deserved that the Chinese get all the attention because they are much bigger than us."

But while China's economy still dwarfs India's, that could change soon. "It has 1,1 billion people, it's going to be the world's most populous country in 20 years and it can be the world's biggest economy in less than two decades," Dan Twining, an India expert with the German Marshall Fund, told Deutsche Welle.

"I think we in the West, in Europe and in America, should be paying a little more attention to the world's biggest democracy."

Overlapping interests

He notes that much of the focus on China in Europe and the US stems not from admiration, but from fear and insecurity about the country's rapid rise.

This is not the case with India, says Twining and quotes Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who once asked: "Why does everybody in Asia fear China's rise and nobody ever talks about India this way? And the answer is of course its democracy and the nature of its open society."

But Western leaders, argue the experts, often fail to make a qualitative distinction between the nature of the Chinese and the Indian systems. Due to this inability to recognize these inherent differences, the West often misunderstands and therefore underutilizes the advantages India has to offer.

"India, I would contend, has a much stronger overlap of interests with the West on things like sustaining an open international economy, not pursuing mercantilist currency and trade policies, sustaining security in the Indian Ocean and in East Asia," says Twining.

Afghanistan is the prime example for key interests Europe and the US share with India. "The Indians would absolutely love to help in Afghanistan, because Afghanistan falling apart is not in India's interest," says Abraham. "It's a terrible outcome for India. The US and the EU can walk away from Afghanistan, we can't."

Active in Afghanistan

In fact, India - largely unknown to the larger public - has been training small contingents of Afghan security forces in India and is the biggest bilateral donor in the country. It actively supports efforts to establish a functioning democracy there and strongly opposes a takeover by the Taliban - both goals that are congruent to those of the EU and the US.

India, notes Twining, simply has an abiding self interest it shares with the West in stemming global terrorism. "More Indians have died from international terrorism than any country not at war."

In practical terms, how could India then help the West in Afghanistan? First, it could ramp up its training for Afghan security forces - a task that due to its experience in counterinsurgency tactics it may be better-suited for than many European countries.

Second, experts say, it could be part of a solution as Western countries are increasingly focused on an exit strategy and handing over security to Afghan and possible other parties.

That this hasn't happened yet - and also the main reason why India maintains such a low profile in Afghanistan - has to do with Pakistan.

"Pakistan will be unhappy if India gets more involved, but at the end of day, I would argue it's better for Pakistan that Afghanistan remains whole and functioning than if Afghanistan becomes balkanized somehow or if the Taliban resurge in Afghanistan," says Twining. "This isn't good for Pakistan's future political or security trajectory at all."

That India wouldn't shirk a stronger role in Afghanistan, a country with which also has close cultural and historical ties, is evident by its engagement on the international stage, says Reuben Abraham.

"If you look at the composition of UN peacekeeping forces around the world, India is one of biggest contributor of troops. So it actually contributes massively to the security apparatus of the world in terms of actual feet on the ground."

So India would be prepared to do more in Afghanistan if the West wanted it to. The bigger question, say the experts, is whether Europe and the US are prepared to ask for it.

Author: Michael Knigge
Editor: Rob Mudge