Op-Ed: India is now bigger than China – the US should ally with India as hedge against China
By Mark Demetropoulos
India’s population will overtake China - this month - as the most populous country on Earth.
Last year – in 2022 - India’s population was 1.417 billion people compared to China’s 1.426 billion. And India’s population has been increasing as China’s population decreases. According to the UN, China’s population is expected to decline to 1.313 billion people by the year 2050.
With the USA and many Western nations are at odds with China politically, India could prove to be a vital ally.
First, it is an outrage that India still has no permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which now consists of five members: the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China.
The UN Security Council needs an update - to add India as the sixth permanent member of the UN Security Council.
India is now the most populous country in the world. And India is the world’s largest democracy – with a history of 75 years as a stable, thriving democracy – which makes it bigger than the populations of next twelve democracies, combined.
India is also a booming economic nation, with a GDP of $3.3 Trillion – the fourth or fifth largest economy in the world – larger than the economies of France ($2.9 Tillion), the UK ($3.2 Trillion) or Russia ($1.8 Trillion).
Another reason to add India to the Security Council is that it has become a growing Military power on the global stage. India’s economic growth has lead the way for to it become a military power in the area of military technological advances - rivaling only the United States.
And India is a nuclear weapons power – with a growing nuclear deterrent. India developed nuclear weapons in the 1990’s, and now has an estimated 200 nuclear warheads. India’s “Minimum Credible Deterrence” doctrine holds those weapons are for defense only, in a secure triad, to deter other countries, like China, from ever launching an attack on India.
India has also become the world’s leading “importer of advanced conventional weapons…” India has modernized its military the past few decades and has transformed its military from a security defense to that of technological advanced global military power.
India is an increasingly important ally to the United States. When India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with former US President Trump just a few short years ago, both leaders recognized how USA and India’s cooperation, both militarily and economically, may be a key strategic hedge against China’s supremacy.
Trump invitation to Indian Prime Minister Modi, to attend the 2020 summit meeting of the expanded Group of Seven or G7, highlighted the importance of India’s growing role in become a player on the world’s stage.
India is now a strategic global power economically and militarily. As now the world’s most populous nation, and the world’s largest democracy. It is time India is recognized as the World Power that they have become and should be added to the United Nations Security Council. India will be a key play in America and the West’s confrontation against China.