On the show this week, Ambassador Vijay Gokhale joins Milan to discuss the India-China relationship. His latest book examines how Beijing uses coercion, diplomacy, and military force to advance its interests—and what those patterns can tell us about China’s behavior today.
China remains one of the most consequential—and most difficult—foreign policy challenges facing India today.
Even as tensions along the border persist, New Delhi is cautiously rethinking economic ties with Beijing. This rethink, in turn, is taking place against a broader change in the strategic environment as Washington rethinks its own relationship with China.
Few people in India have thought more about the changing China-India relationship that Ambassador Vijay Gokhale. Ambassador Gokhale is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service in January 2020 after a diplomatic career that spanned thirty-nine years.
From January 2018 to January 2020, he served as the foreign secretary of India. He previously served as India’s high commissioner to Malaysia, ambassador to Germany, and ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. Ambassador Gokhale has written five books on China, the most recent of which is titled China's Wars: The Politics and Diplomacy Behind its Military Coercion.
His latest book examines how Beijing uses coercion, diplomacy, and military force to advance its interests—and what those patterns can tell us about China’s behavior today.
On the show this week, Ambassador Gokhale tells Milan why he calls China an “opportunistic power,” why the India-Chian relationship is best characterized as one of “armed coexistence,” and whether the thaw in India-China relations reflects a genuine shift in Chinese policy or a tactical pause. Plus, the two discuss the shift in U.S.-China relations, the Xi-Trump summit, and the prospects of a G-2 accommodation between the United States and China.
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