Beijing: Chinese analyst and journalist Einar Tangen says India is facing a critical choice about what path it intends to take for future development, but that in many ways it may already have started down a path from which there is no return. Speaking to Swedish defence analyst Glen Diesen in an interview, Tangen noted that while PM Narendra Modi tried to make a very public display of warmth at the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Beijing last year. there was considerable skepticism on the sidelines of the summit about New Delhi's commitment to the regional order developing under the SCO's umbrella.
"Nothing gets Washington more upset," said Tangem "than the leaders of Russia and India and China laughing and exchanging words, and being very clear that their communications are strong and that they are very much interested in each other."
Tangen noted that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's clear preference for engagement with Washington in the last few years clearly put India in a position where it saw itself as a regional rival to China, but after the conflict in 2025 between Pakistan and India, Washington has reassessed whether India still has the capacity to play that role while New Delhi is still trying to keep one foot in the US camp and attempting to engage with Beijing on equal footing.
Similar sentiments were ex[ressed by Indian defence analyst Pravin Swahney who said it seemed clear to him that New Delhi had chosen to stick with "a failing empire, an empire on its way down, rather than engage in the new world order," emerging at the SCO.
