Staff Reporter
An International Webinar on “Sino-India Border Clashes: Implications for South Asian Strategic Environment” was organised by the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies, in the capital. The international panel of experts from China, Pakistan, United Kingdom, and the United States were of the view at the Webinar, that:
There is a severe perception gap between China and India. Both sides believe that their policies are purely defensive. However, despite their self-perceived defensive purposes, the current conflict is not going to end anytime soon.
The United States is using a binding military strategy to ally with India against China gradually.
Interdependence means China and India cannot afford to be enemies.
India is only concerned with prestige, not with deterrence.
Border disputes are unlikely to escalate to nuclear conflicts.
Without an improvement in Indo-Pak relations, and to some extent, US-Iran relations, an important reason for instability though not the only one in Afghanistan, will continue to fester.
Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South Asia at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London, believed that the recent violent border clashes between Indian and Chinese troops had resulted in a deterioration of bilateral relations between the two countries. This bad relationship could not be easily and nor quickly reversed. As a result of this, India’s existing competition with China in South Asia and the broader Indian Ocean Region was likely to sharpen into what he described as possible contestation in the defense and security domain. However, he opined that while India’s engagement in the QUAD was also going to increase, its focus would be broader than just defense and security. Mr Roy-Chaudhury noted that the increasing emphasis on defense policy was not risk–free for India. Therefore, it would ‘need to be imaginatively and sensitively applied by New Delhi, if it was to result in political and diplomatic dividends for the South Block’, he concluded.
Dr Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, Beijing, highlighted that there was a serious perception gap between China and India.
