PIC hosted a Round Table Webinar this month with the authors of the policy paper “Strategic Patience and Flexible Policies” including Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar (President, PIC), Amb. Gautam Bambawale (Trustee, PIC), Dr. Ganesh Natarajan (Trustee, PIC), Dr. Ajit Ranade (Member, PIC) and Prof. Ajay Shah (Professor, NIPFP) along with Prof. C. Raja Mohan, Director (Institute of South Asian Studies), National University of Singapore, Amb. Ronen Sen, former Indian Ambassador to USA, Russia and Germany as discussants, on 6th April. The event was chaired by Amb. Sudhir Devare, Member, PIC.

The clashes between the Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galwan valley last year and the stand-off that lasted for a better part of the year, led to the realisation that ‘business as usual’ with China was no longer a possibility. The authors emphasised that this paper explored the need for India to evolve a new strategic and policy framework to engage with China on the political, economic and security fronts, given this new context. They added that India must look to build and hone its strengths in order to achieve parity with China in the long term, as current asymmetries dictate an outlook of strategic patience. The discussants highlighted some of the critiques of the paper and discussed the same with the authors.

The discussion was followed by a round of questions and answers.

Please find the link to the video of this session: