Sino-Indian Relations in Present Scenario: An Overview

India and China make a formal alliance which is unrealistic in the current international political climate. Tension has slowly been building up between the two Asian giants after the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama went ahead with plans to visit a heavily militarized Tibetan Buddhist area in northeast India in November 2009. The academic and media commentators have been further inciting the divergence of opinions. “Is China itching to wage war on India?” was an immediate response of Professor Brahma Chellaney3 of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India. Reports have also appeared in Chinese state media alleging that India was moving troops and fighter aircraft to the northeast, specifically into Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Close to 400 incidents of border intrusion have occurred in the last three years, according to the Indian Defence Yearbook published in February 2009 with over 140 in 2007 and many more in 2008. Is there a possibility of both India and China competing against each other to improve their respective strategic positions and grab the ‘pivot’ position in the strategic triangle? The course of evolution of the triangular relationship involving India, China and the United States of America has a significant impact on the current global configuration of power and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.