India China Relationship
Cooperation without trust: India-China relations today by Abhilash Roy Nalpathamkalam
Debates about Sino-Indian relations often start off from either one of two different, and even contradictory, schools of thought.
The first of them takes a “realist” point of view, arguing that each of the two emerging powers would fight for dominance in the Asian continent. It tends to describe relations between the two countries as hostile. This could even lead to military confrontation between the two nations, or at least to an even greater militarization of the region (Roy 2011, Banyan 2012, The Economist 2012). War is only contained because both countries have nuclear weapons and are increasing and modernizing their capabilities in conventional warfare. India belongs to the group of major importers of military technology.
The second school of thought takes a liberal perspective, viewing China and India as two major emerging markets in a more and more interdependent world, where trade and commerce sustain peaceful co-existence. Observing the Indian media it seems that the “China threat“ theory dominates in most news broadcasts (Banyan 2012).
This paper intends to review the current relationship between China and India and to analyse where India and China are cooperating, why they do so, and what is (and could) be done to improve relations between the two countries. It will also look at people-to-people interaction and new fields of cooperation in the civil society and the education sectors. Beyond the use of secondary sources about India-China relations, two Indian scholars of China where interviewed for this paper. They stand for two generations of the post-1962 era, illustrating gradual changes in India's perception of China.
The aim of this essay is to look beyond the general debate about India’s relationship with China and show what kinds of cooperation already exist and how persistent they are. I also want to emphasize another important factor of Sino-Indian
Debates about Sino-Indian relations often start off from either one of two different, and even contradictory, schools of thought.
The first of them takes a “realist” point of view, arguing that each of the two emerging powers would fight for dominance in the Asian continent. It tends to describe relations between the two countries as hostile. This could even lead to military confrontation between the two nations, or at least to an even greater militarization of the region (Roy 2011, Banyan 2012, The Economist 2012). War is only contained because both countries have nuclear weapons and are increasing and modernizing their capabilities in conventional warfare. India belongs to the group of major importers of military technology.
The second school of thought takes a liberal perspective, viewing China and India as two major emerging markets in a more and more interdependent world, where trade and commerce sustain peaceful co-existence. Observing the Indian media it seems that the “China threat“ theory dominates in most news broadcasts (Banyan 2012).
This paper intends to review the current relationship between China and India and to analyse where India and China are cooperating, why they do so, and what is (and could) be done to improve relations between the two countries. It will also look at people-to-people interaction and new fields of cooperation in the civil society and the education sectors. Beyond the use of secondary sources about India-China relations, two Indian scholars of China where interviewed for this paper. They stand for two generations of the post-1962 era, illustrating gradual changes in India's perception of China.
The aim of this essay is to look beyond the general debate about India’s relationship with China and show what kinds of cooperation already exist and how persistent they are. I also want to emphasize another important factor of Sino-Indian