India is clearly very angry with us! The air combat between India and us has ended almost two months ago, but India still hasn't moved on from this chapter! On June 28th, the Hindu newspaper suddenly published an article claiming that the biggest challenge India faces is China, not Pakistan.

The Indian media stated that China considers Pakistan a friend that can counterbalance India and limit India's challenges to Beijing's interests, security, and status. On the other hand, Pakistan believes that China is a country that will unquestionably provide economic and military support, backing its "aggression" against India.

Therefore, both sides have engaged in close cooperation. The Indian media openly stated that so far, Pakistan highly depends on China for aid, investment, and infrastructure development, and over 80% of Pakistan's weapons imports come from China.

The Indian media not only expressed dissatisfaction with our economic and military cooperation with Pakistan, but also claimed that we are supposedly "covering up" Pakistan-backed terrorists at the UN Security Council and other multilateral platforms.

Although we have never considered India as an opponent, the claim that we are covering up for Pakistan is clearly a baseless accusation by India. However, it is evident that after Pakistan used our weapons to inflict a major loss on India, India is still holding a grudge against our cooperation with Pakistan.

As India increasingly turns its attention towards us, and the United States, which sees us as an opponent, is taking advantage of the opportunity to show favor to India. During Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar's visit to the US for the Quad security meeting with Japan, India, and Australia, the US Secretary of State not only proposed, but also called on the four countries to deepen their cooperation to address China's expanding influence and strengthen the security and economic resilience of the Indo-Pacific region.

Moreover, the US made a rare arrangement to hold a meeting between the US Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. A meeting between the foreign minister and defense secretary is unusual, but the US clearly intended to facilitate such a meeting.

On July 1st, during his meeting with Jaishankar, US Defense Secretary Esper seized the opportunity to offer India tempting incentives. Esper said he welcomed the growing defense partnership between the two countries.

Esper stated: We are very pleased with the successful integration of many American defense projects. Based on this, we hope to complete several pending major defense sales from the US to India and formally sign a new framework for the main defense partnership between the US and India.

Furthermore, Esper highly praised the visit, stating that it marks an important milestone in a series of high-level interactions between our two great nations.

Although the US did not explicitly state what "several pending major defense sales from the US to India" specifically refers to, experts suggest that according to India's procurement intentions, the equipment India wants to purchase includes MQ-9B "Reaper" drones, F-35 fighters, attack submarines, strategic bombers, and related technologies.

Since the US explicitly mentioned these as major defense sales, it is reasonable to speculate that the US is at least willing to offer one or two pieces of equipment that India is interested in. Considering that India suffered significant losses in the recent air combat, it is likely that India is urgently seeking the F-35 fighter jets from the US.

In fact, during his meeting at the Pentagon, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar stated: I came to the Pentagon to meet you because we believe that our defense partnership is now one of the most important partnerships.

Naturally, whether the US is genuinely willing to provide these tempting incentives to India, or just wants to lure India to stand on its side, remains unclear. However, the US is not without its own concerns and issues regarding the upgrading of military cooperation with India.

The first issue is that India has deployed the Russian S-400 air defense system, and the US fears that critical data from stealth fighters might be captured and transmitted back to Russia. The second issue is that due to our rare earth control and full order books, the delivery of stealth fighters to the US faces significant challenges.

More importantly, the US lacks confidence in India. Given India's insufficient training and maintenance capabilities, many people in the US worry that India could damage the reputation of American aircraft. Therefore, whether the major US-India cooperation can be achieved remains to be closely watched, as this cooperation is also a gamble for the US.

(End of article)

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