Background

October 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of the India-China border war. As tensions continue between India and China along their disputed border, and as U.S.-China competition intensifies, what do the experiences of the past tell us about the future of strategic competition with China?

In this backdrop, ORF America hosted an in-person lunch roundtable discussion with Ambassador Nirupama Rao, former Indian Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China and the United States. She is the author of the recent book, The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China 1949-1962.

The roundtable was held under the Chatham House rule and the discussion featured themes such as the history of Sino-India border relations, the nature of the India-China rivalry, Chinese strategic culture, the future of Tibet, economic decoupling, China-Russia relations, and the importance of archival research and applied history to improve policy making. The discussion was attended by diplomats, U.S. government officials, think tank scholars, journalists, corporate leaders and academics.  

Featuring

Nirupama Menon Rao

Nirupama Menon Rao is a retired Indian diplomat who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973. During her four-decade-long diplomatic career she spent significant time working on the bilateral relationship between India and China and specialized on the history and problems concerning the India-China border, and the question of Tibet.  She was India’s first woman spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, the first Indian woman to be high commissioner to Sri Lanka, and the first Indian woman ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. She served as India’s Foreign Secretary from 2009-2011 and thereafter as India’s Ambassador to the United States from 2011-2013. On her retirement from active diplomatic service, Ambassador Rao has held fellowships at the Brown University, New School in New York, Wilson Center, Columbia University and the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of the book The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China 1949-1962. Informed by archival material from India, China, Britain and the United States, and deep personal knowledge of China, Ambassador Rao takes a deep-dive into the early years of the India-China relationship from 1949 to 1962.

Dhruva Jaishankar (Moderator)

Dhruva Jaishankar is Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America).  He is also a Non-Resident Fellow with the Lowy Institute. Jaishankar was previously a Fellow with Brookings India in New Delhi and a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund. His research — on India’s relations with the United States, Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Europe; defense and security policy; and globalization, democracy, and technology — has been published in several books, policy reports, and publications including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Survival.