R. N. Das replies: Envisioning a war or a war-like situation with China, even though the two countries fought a war in 1962, and though there have been tensions and instances of border-incursions from time to time, is a hypothetical position. In fact, there was almost a war-like situation in 1986 in Sumdorong Chu incident, but it didn’t precipitate into a war. For about 48 years now, the situation across the Sino-Indian border has not been allowed to precipitate to the brink of a war. Both India and China have claimed peace and tranquility across the line of actual control in the border. There have also been a number of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) in various agreements signed between India and China, such as in 1993, 1996 and 2005, to meet any kind of situation and these CBMs have been working reasonably well. Besides, there have been meetings between the special representatives of the two countries to address the border issue, and there has been considerable progress in these meetings. There has also been constant engagement between leaders of the two countries, both bilaterally and multi-laterally. A hot line telephone connection is also being put in place to enable contact at highest political level. These engagements attempt to obviate any kind of acrimonious situations between the two countries, and minimizes the chances of a war breaking out between the two countries.

In spite of all these CBMs, there is no laxity in defence preparedness to face any kind of challenge to India’s territorial integrity, security, and sovereignty from any quarter, including China. In addition, India’s diplomatic and strategic engagement with global powers has been strengthened to meet challenges to regional stability and India’s security and sovereignty. India today is not the India of 1960s, and has sufficient self-confidence and wherewithal to deal with any threat to its security on it’s own.

Rumel Dahiya replies: The question perhaps, points to the several discourses that takes place in strategic circles and in the press, about two of our neighbours, Pakistan and China. This also implies that India is less concerned with other countries including its other neighbouring countries. It is true that China and Pakistan are often in news in India and mostly for wrong reasons. That is only to be expected because Pakistan has always treated India as an adversary and has abetted terrorism against it. People in India are concerned about security implications of Pakistan's continuing intransigence while at the same time commonality of culture keeps their interest alive in knowing about happenings in that country.

China became our largest immediate neighbour after it occupied Tibet. China and India have fought a war, have an unresolved boundary dispute besides few other serious differences on substantive issue. Yet the economic relations between the two countries are very robust. The combination of security and geopolitical concerns and expanding economic relations make it incumbent on India's part to know much more about China than what it knows so far. As China's Ambassador to India said on 13 December, India-China relations are fragile. They are indeed so because China is perceived to be least sensitive to India's concerns and being an authoritarian state and a closed society its intentions appear to be suspicious. In a way, India is forced to spend quite a lot of its diplomatic energy and military focus on current threat and/or future challenge that these countries present. However, many other countries like the USA, Russia, Iran, UK, Japan, ASEAN countries, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh receive fair amount of attention in government, media and think tank circles. It is true that the focus shifts from time to time, based on events and their seriousness, both positive or negative. While Sri Lanka received greater attention in the strategic community during 2007 and 2008, nowadays Afghanistan and Nepal are rarely out of focus. USA also is very much part of the discourse because of the importance of the relationship between the two countries. Besides specific countries, regional and global issues are often of vital importance to India.