ISAS Insights

With 2014 designated as the “Year of Friendly Exchanges between India and China”, the two mega-state Asian neighbours will commemorate later this year the 60th anniversary of the enunciation of Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Panchsheel). Interestingly, however, New Delhi’s diplomatic calendar in the early part of January 2014 has been dominated by Japan’s overtures to India in the defence domain and by the crisis over the treatment of an Indian diplomat in the United States. Moreover, China, despite speaking of the upcoming Panchsheel anniversary, has emphasised the primacy of Sino-Russian and Sino-American relations (with India not seen in this hall of primacy). So, a relevant question is whether China’s bid to fashion a “new model of major-country relations” with the US will overshadow the mantra of Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in the Chinese discourse. Regardless of whether this happens, India and China can seek a mutually beneficial ‘new normal’ in their relationship.