India and China : Building Strategic Trust

By the early 21st century with the rise of China economies of East Asia and India, the prognosis of a strong Asia showed promise. The Indo - Pacific Region (essentially Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean) deservedly came to be recognised as the new'Centre of Gravity'in the evolving world economic order. Asian states have exhibited leadership in a range of significant areas, such as economics, diplomacy, military power, science & technology, innovation, and soft power thus adding traction to the notion of'Asia Century'of shared prosperity and common destiny. Under this overarching geo-strategic environment, it is imperative that the two most populous and growing economic powers, India and China, move towards achieving consensus, co-operation and strategic trust rather than compete and contest. However, since the tumultuous border war of 1962, there exists a deep distrust of each other's motives across the Himalayan barriers. To achieve this India and China ought to share their perspectives on the key drivers of divergences and work towards mitigating the same to build strategic trust. This book seeks to assess the causes of strategic mistrust in Sino – India relations and recommend measures for building trust and improving bilateral relations. Towards that end, the ten divergences have been taken as individual chapters, with both Indian and Chinese scholars providing respective perspectives.