The Hindu : Front Page : Kochi meet to focus on India-U.S.-China ties

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Kochi meet to focus on India-U.S.-China ties

Special Correspondent

Harvard, Tsinghua universities participating
Papers invited from experts on four questions

NEW DELHI: An international conference, with participation from two top global universities, will be held in Kochi from January 21 to 23 to explore the relationship among India, China and the United States. “We need to define very clearly our relationship with China and the U.S. This conference will focus on major issues and provide inputs to the policy makers,” the former Union Minister and National Renaissance Chairman Subramanian Swamy told journalists here on Monday.

“The conference will examine whether the three have sufficient interest to come together economically and politically or whether they will go on their own. The two universities that have formally associated with the conference are the Harvard University, U.S., and Tsinghua University, China.” Papers have been invited from experts on four questions: Will India and China continue to grow economically and militarily or are there obstacles to such growth? Will both countries be an economic opportunity or threat to the U.S. in terms of jobs, access to energy and innovations? Will the U.S. be able to strategically partner India or China or both for a new world order? The stability of India and China in the coming decades.

He said normalisation of relations with China was a “great achievement” but much more effort was required to take it to an “understanding based on trust.” He criticised the “closed-door” approach to framing foreign policy with minimal reliance on think-tanks, resulting in “in-breeding.”

The conference committee includes the former Foreign Secretary, Salman Haidar, the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram, Roderick Macfarquhar and Dwight Perkin from Harvard University, Li Daokui and Yan Xue Tong from Tsinghua University and R. Vaidyanathan of IIM, Bangalore.

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