Nirupama Menon Rao, with Bangalore-based contributors of the book, Pranay Kotasthane, and Shobhankita Reddy, during the discussion about The Hindu Group’s book ‘China: Indian perspectives on China’s politics, economy, and foreign relations’, which not only captures China’s complexities at this unique moment in world history but also offers a perspective that will stand the test of time, at The Takshashila Institution, in Bengaluru on October 10, 2025.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar
The violence between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in 2020 was not only a clash of soldiers on a remote frontier, but also marked the shattering of a carefully constructed edifice of trust, former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao said on Friday (October 10, 2025).
She was delivering the opening remarks at a panel discussion on a book released by The Hindu Group, titled, China: Indian Perspectives on China’s Politics, Economy, and Foreign Relations.
“[The 2020 clash] told us that peace cannot rest on habit alone. It must be renewed by political will, and since then both sides have talked, but the old equilibrium has vanished. The relationship today is defined by what I will call as competitive coexistence, a state of armed peace, engagement shadowed by mistrust, cooperation constrained by rivalry,” Ms. Rao said, at the event organised at the Takshashila Institution
She added that the trust between India and China has ebbed to its lowest point in decades. “The border remains tense and suspicions run deep, but history shows that even adversarial neighbours can co-exist if they establish the rules of engagement. That was the purpose of the 1993 Agreement on Peace and Tranquility between India and China,” she said.
Shifting world order
Ms. Rao also spoke about how the world order has shifted during U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, and his recent remarks on India’s relationship with China.
“Today, as India and China cautiously resume their negotiation processes, the world itself has shifted. The return of Donald Trump to the White House, more volatile and transactional, has unsettled many of the assumptions that once underpinned India’s foreign policy,” she said.
She noted that Washington, once viewed as an indispensible power front in India’s eyes, now feels less predictable due to U.S. tariffs, transactions, and the conditions placed on defence cooperation.
“Each of these is a reminder that even the closest alliance rests on shifting ground. And who can forget President Trump’s satirical aside after the Tianjin summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation when he spoke on ‘deepest, darkest China’,” she said.
Panel discussion
In the panel discussion that followed, three contributors to the book — Pranay Kotasthane, Manoj Kewalramani, and Shobhankita Reddy, all from the Takshashila Institution — spoke on a wide range of topics, including China’s advancement in the field of technology, the Communist Party of China, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s succession plan.
Published – October 10, 2025 11:27 pm IST
