India should be transparent on its military intentions in the region, including in the Indian Ocean to "ease the nerves" of its neighbours, a leading state-run Chinese newspaper said on Monday.
"A leading regional power, India intends to assume a bigger role in South Asia. But that raises the question of how India is going to use its increasing power.
"The dominance India is seeking has to be conducive to the equilibrium of the current international order," the Global Times said in an editorial.
Nobody wants to see piracy running wild in the Indian Ocean. But India needs to make clearer its military intentions to ease the nerves of its neighbours," the newspaper, a sister publication of the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China said.
Reacting to Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju's statement that India's navy would help China secure shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, the paper said, "A promise of protecting the public good in the region is a good start."
"We hope Raju's remarks are more than just a diplomatic posture made for temporary convenience, and instead represent a genuinely positive response to China's position that the two countries have to find a way to cooperate. That would demonstrate that India is considering seriously new ways of cooperating with China," the paper commented.
"Worry about China competing for dominance of the Indian Ocean runs deep inside India. Such worries are unnecessary," the paper said.
