Date : 05 Feb, 2020     Time : 1030-1130 hrs

China is significantly ahead of India economically and on the global stage, and it has long been posited that the greater this gap, the more India needs the US and EU to balance China. On the other hand, some posit that India's historical baggage as the de facto head of a strong anti-colonial bloc restricts how much it can engage with the West. So, how does India calibrate its policy? Similarly, while China uses its significantly stronger economic and global institutional ties with the West to offset India, does its role also as a prime challenger to the West restrict its room for manoeuvre? What roles do emerging and legacy global consensus issues such as climate change and non-proliferation play in this? Can the EU play a role in strengthening India's Indo-Pacific vision, including in the US-India-Japan-Australia quadrilateral? What existing synergies, if any, between India, US and EU can be leveraged to forge regional cooperation arcs to counter-balance Chinese expansion through its One Belt One Road project?

To explore these questions, on 5 February 2020, the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) hosted a discussion, titled, ‘Balancing China: Exploring an India-US-EU Approach’. The interaction took place from 1030-1130 hrs in the IPCS Conference Room.

The speakers were:

• Prof Klaus Larres | Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor and Adjunct Professor of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Abhijit Iyer-Mitra | Senior Research Fellow, IPCS

The discussion was chaired by Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra, Associate Professor, Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, and Visiting Fellow, IPCS.