Papua New Guinea, US to sign security pact with eye on China

How many? Lol!
TBH I don't like this US military bases popping up left & right in SCS.
We need to be careful, after all we don't want to get dragged in an avoidable war with china.

The more allies they get, the more allies India gets, because these small countries will want to balance things out in terms of relations.

We don't want them neutral, that leads to problems.

Yeah, we don't want war, but that's where allies come in to act as deterrence.

The Chinese themselves will make sure India doesn't get an excuse to interfere in a Sino-US war. But we can create problems at the border.