There is widespread consensus that as two rising powers, India and China will have progressively more to do together at the regional and global levels and that their cooperation needs to be strengthened and expanded. This book represents the first occasion where academic specialists and retired military personnel from both countries have come together with serving military officers to give their views on a number of important and sensitive topics ranging from nuclear CBMs to maritime cooperation to terrorism. It is hoped that the debates engendered in this volume, will contribute to better understanding and the improvement of bilateral ties not just in the security domain but also in other fields in which the two countries are increasingly engaged.

This volume discusses a range of key domestic forces driving the current Chinese growth ranging from economic reforms to governance practices to analyze their impact and influence at home as well as on China's foreign and security policies in its near and extended neighbourhood. At the same time, the volume also looks at specific themes like technology, agricultural development, reform of state-owned enterprises and the use of Party bodies to engage in foreign propaganda work among other things to offer examples of the merging of Chinese domestic political and foreign policy interests. In the process, the book offers its readers a better idea of China's place in the world as the Chinese themselves see it and the implications over time for China, its neighbourhood and the wider world.

This volume is an attempt to develop a more nuanced understanding of China's foreign, security and economic policies by bringing together perspectives from two of its most important neighbours, India and Vietnam. This is a unique exercise because these two countries have a long history of both contending and cooperating with the People's Republic of China. Even as India's boundary dispute and Vietnam's maritime territorial disputes with China have persisted, both countries have, in recent decades, also managed to successfully develop close economic relations with their northern neighbour as well as cooperated extensively with Beijing on regional and global issues of significance and mutual interest. Yet, the growth of China's capabilities and ambitions, and the decline of its impulse towards multilateralism present challenges for India and Vietnam in their neighbourhood. It is against this backdrop that the authors in this book examine China's bilateral relations and its role in regional multilateral organisations as well as the balancing behaviour of other powers in the region. In the process, this work also seeks to strengthen the sinews of the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam by building closer ties between the research communities in the two countries and giving it greater analytical heft.