Shangri La Dialogue: Modi and Biden's New Asia
The Indian Express
The following is an excerpt of ASPI Senior Fellow C. Raja Mohan's op-ed originally published in The Indian Express.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Washington for a state visit in two weeks, the unfolding geopolitical churn in Asia triggered by China’s rise will form a critical background to his talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. In two and a half years, Biden has made significant strategic gains and reversed the dominant perception that China’s domination of Asia is inevitable and America’s retreat is irreversible.
There is no better place than the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, which concluded its 20th edition in Singapore over the weekend, to capture the shifting strategic trends in Asia. Since it was first convened in 2002, the SLD has become the premium forum where defence ministers of Asia gather to publicly articulate their positions on regional security as well as conduct bilateral and minilateral defence diplomacy behind closed doors. It has also become a venue in recent years for quiet consultations among the region’s intelligence chiefs. The Director of US Intelligence Avril Haines as well as the chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Samant Goel, were among those taking part in this year’s conclave.