India-China Luncheon Lectures – Ukraine and India’s great power relations
In our sixth India-China Luncheon Lecture, Professor C. Raja Mohan will discuss the implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine on India’s relations with China, the US, and the EU.
Guests
C. Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute, Delhi
Chaired by
Frédéric Grare, Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR
The ECFR Asia Programme is delighted to invite you to our online webinar which is part of our virtual luncheon series dedicated to the future of India-China relations.
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. In this session, Prof. C. Raja Mohan will discuss India’s Russia policy in light of its China policy and what this means for Europe’s relations with India.
The tension between Delhi’s enthusiasm for a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific and its reluctance to call out Russian aggression against Ukraine in Europe underline the complex strategic circumstances that India finds itself in. Balancing China in Asia is India’s highest priority and Delhi continues to see a role for Moscow in that strategy. Adding to that calculus is India’s long-standing dependence on Russia for its military needs. This dependence can’t be overcome in the near term when India is locked in a military conflict with China. Over the longer term though, Russia’s deepening ties with China and India’s growing strategic partnership with the US and Europe in Asia could reduce Moscow’s salience in India’s great power relations.
C. Raja Mohan is a Senior Fellow with the Asia Society Policy Institute in Delhi–a division of the Asia Society India Centre, Mumbai. He is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore and was previously the Director of ISAS. Mohan was the founding director of Carnegie India in Delhi, the sixth international center of Carnegie Endowment for Peace. He was associated with several Indian think tanks, including the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses. He was a Professor of South Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. He also served on India’s National Security Advisory Board.
The debate will be on the record and held in English. If you have any questions about this event, please contact [email protected].