Hillary Clinton’s India Visit: Chinese Elephant in the Room

If “much of the history of the 21st century will be written in Asia”, then New Delhi will need to find the energy and resources to focus not just on its troubled western frontiers but also on its sprawling and diverse eastern neighbourhood.

Arunachal: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward?

The issuing of stapled visas by China to Arunachalis is possibly, a step forward, an acknowledgement that the area in question is disputed, and by implication, amenable to resolution by negotiations. This in turn indicates that China has taken a step back from its previous position of no visas being required.

Learning Chinese, Understanding China

A presentation, I made at the Department of Chinese Language, Foreign Languages Wing, Army Education Corps Training College and Centre in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh in early July 2011.

Indian Democracy’s China Responsibility

The business of inspiring China and the Chinese is not one of the United States and Americans alone. India and Indians too, can step in. But let us not be caught being hypocritical or taking short-cuts, for the Chinese are watching.

Sino-Indian Boundary Dispute: Provinces/States as Ice-Breakers

The solution to both the political and economic discontent of Chinese provinces and Indian states as well as the unresolved boundary dispute between the two countries could be to allow their provinces greater freedom to interact with each other in terms of people-to-people and economic contacts

Of Strategic Dialogues and Talk-shops

Empty plaudits for multilateralism and championing a multi-polar world cannot hide the fact that New Delhi’s current method of engagement with China avoids the intense domestic public scrutiny that comes from a sustained high-level and exclusive dialogue with Beijing.

Indian Public Opinion and Sino-Indian Relations

The impact of popular opinion on Sino-Indian relations has received particular attention in recent years. However, this is no phenomenon. In the run-up to the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962 and subsequently, popular feelings played an important role constraining the government’s freedom of action and in encouraging political players to make rash statements and promises.

Charting India’s China Policy for the Next Decade

How can India maximize its strengths in diplomatic and other arenas vis-à-vis China in a manner pushes forward the positive aspects of the bilateral relationship while simultaneously reducing chances for actual physical conflict of even a limited nature?

Five-Party Talks to Guarantee Borders in South Asia

A Five-Party Talks mechanism involving India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US is essential to finding solutions to the problems of both terrorism and the Kashmir dispute