Willem van Eekelen

Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China Willem van Eekelen

This volume is an updated and expanded version of the author's original book, first published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and based on his cum laude doctoral dissertation. That volume discussed how the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence drowned in the first war between a communist and a non-aligned state. This new edition reproduces the original text, but supplements it considerably in light of subsequent developments and official records and reports only later released or leaked to the public. It places Sino-Indian relations in the wider, current context of the rise of China, the position of Tibet and the disorganised state of Asia. The border dispute did not prevent substantial economic relations developing between the two countries and visits taking place at the highest political level. But it still gives rise to almost daily incursions, and in the current climate, the risk of a clash is growing, as forces have been strengthened and most of the Line of Actual Control has not been demarcated. This thought-provoking volume sheds light on what is still a complex and uneasy relationship.