India-China Luncheon Lectures – The 2020 Galwan crisis and the future of India-China relations
Lt Gen SL Narasimhan will discuss how India can enhance its security and promote its national interest in an unbalanced strategic environment with China.
Guests
Lt. Gen. S.L. Narasimhan (Retd.), Member, National Security Advisory Board, India
Chaired by
Frédéric Grare, Senior Policy Fellow, Asia Programme, ECFR
The 2020 Galwan Crisis and the Future of India-China Relations: How India can enhance its security and promote its national interest in an unbalanced strategic environment.
The webinar series features one prominent Indian speaker a month who will shed light on the various aspects of the Sino-Indian relationship and help to understand what the possible implications are for Europe’s growing engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. For this session, Lt Gen SL Narasimhan will discuss how India can enhance its security and promote its national interest in an unbalanced strategic environment with China.
On May 5th 2020, Chinese and Indian troops engaged in aggressive face-offs and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border near the Pangong Lake in Ladakh and near the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. These incidents culminated in a melee fight on 15/16 June 2020 which resulted in the death of 20 Indian and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers. On September 7th, bullets were fired across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for the first time in 45 years. Ever since, Indian analysts have been trying to understand why Chinese troops moved into areas in Ladakh, particularly in the Galwan area, which has been peaceful since 1962. They also wonder about the implications of the events for the future of India-China relations.
Lt Gen SL Narasimhan is the Director-General of the Centre for Contemporary China Studies at the Indian MEA. General Narasimhan is an Infantry Officer commissioned in 1977. He has done graduation in Mathematics, Post-Graduation in Defence Studies and PhD in India China Relations. He has been awarded four times for his outstanding contribution to the Indian Army by the President of India.
General Narasimhan has been an instructor in the Indian Military Training Team in Bhutan. He has been an avid China watcher for the last 19 years and speaks Mandarin fluently. Narasimhan served as the Defence Attaché in the Embassy of India in China for three years. His expertise spans from international relations and internal issues to economic and defence related issues with China. Narasimhan has taken part in many Track 2 dialogues both in India and abroad.