October 22, 2024
India Foundation, in collaboration with India Habitat Centre, organised a Panel Discussion on ‘Future of India-China Relations’ on 22 October 2024. The discussants in the panel were Prof Alka Acharya, Chairperson of the Centre for East Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Ambassador Ashok Kantha, Former Indian Ambassador to China and Former High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Malaysia; and Dr Zoravar Daulet Singh, Noted Author and Foreign Affairs Analyst. The session was moderated by Capt. Alok Bansal, Director, India Foundation. The themes of the discussion spanned the dilemmas and complexities in this relationship, including economic ties, defence, strategy, and their import on the international system.
The discussants guided the audience to several nuances in Sino-Indian ties, all of them concurring that the relations between the two largest countries of the world are consequential for stability in their border regions, as well as for global stability. Capt. Bansal, while introducing and laying the context, acknowledged on several occasions that the panel discussion was taking place less than a day after India and China agreed on a landmark deal to end the border standoff and explore the heretofore under-explored aspects of the ties. Dr Daulet Singh expressed the need for all disputes between India and China to be solved politically. He added that China has maintained its influence among countries in the global South.
Prof Acharya agreed that the India-China border dispute is multi-dimensional and hence, trickier to solve. She agreed with Dr Singh about the nagging capabilities gap between India and China that has exacerbated power asymmetry, especially in the 21st century. Ambassador Kantha underscored that border regions will become more stable as India and China coordinate and communicate their activities.
In conclusion, the event was conducted at a crucial juncture in Sino-Indian ties. The discussants and audience, rather than fixating on the border negotiations, concentrated on the structural problems and the aftermath of this reset. There was an agreement around the capacity-gap between India and China, which has deepened in the past decades, and the need to bridge it. It was argued that while the return of normalcy on the border is a welcome development, India will have to tread with caution, as the state of relations between the two countries will be crucial for the international system.
