During their talks in New Delhi, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and high-ranking Indian leaders and officials made no efforts to hide their intention to strengthen their security partnership to counter what they claim is Beijing's "growing assertiveness" and influence in the region.

They even hyped up the two countries' "shared values and democratic principles" to suggest that these are exclusive of China.

In fact, ever since former US president Donald Trump began peddling an Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China's rise and development, the significance of India on the US' geopolitical game board has become greater. This plays right into the hands of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which, under domestic pressure because of its poor handling of the pandemic, has been aggravating the border dispute with China to fuel nationalist sentiments at home. Hence, despite their differences, the US and India have found common cause in their endeavor to scapegoat China.

Apart from signaling closer security cooperation at both the bilateral and multilateral levels, the US chose to play the Tibet card during Blinken's visit. By meeting a representative from the so-called Tibetan government-in-exile in India, Blinken pushed his country's confrontation with China into a dangerous new territory. Washington has already blatantly interfered in China's internal affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Taiwan. Now it is doing so in the Tibet autonomous region.

The latest US contact with the Dalai Lama clique shows the insincerity of the US administration in claiming it wanted to agree on guardrails with Beijing to prevent relations between the US and China veering into conflict, supposedly a task Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was to undertake during her just concluded visit to China.

Both the US and India should know China will not be daunted and forced to back off from safeguarding its territorial integrity and core interests. The US' Indo-Pacific strategy is intended to sow discord and confrontation in the region. In doing so, it is laying time bombs in the region rather than putting up guardrails.

The strategy is born of the US' Cold War mentality which runs counter to the regional aspiration for peace, stability and development. Not to mention the regional drive to combat the COVID-19 pandemic through cooperation and unity.

As for New Delhi, the efforts to join Washington in confronting and provoking China will only backfire in the foreseeable future. After all, worsening ties with Beijing and further instability in the border areas will do a disservice to its own development and regional and global ambitions.