1/ One of the things that's interesting about the Indian effort to create distance between Russia & China is that it's the reverse of what happened in the past. In 1968-1970 & then in mid-to-late 1970s, it was Moscow trying to keep Delhi distant from Beijing.
🇨🇳🇮🇳🇷🇺
🇨🇳🇮🇳🇷🇺
2/ One of the little known facts is that Indian efforts at a China rapprochement preceded Nixon's. After having demonstrated the Indian military's mettle in the 1967 Sikkim skirmishes, Indira Gandhi publicly signaled a willingness to revisit China ties.
3/ Why did Indira Gandhi want to stabilize rels w/ China in 68-70 & then post-1971 war? She felt heightened tensions w China:
- required considerable investment in defense
- kept India dependent on US, USSR (later this became over-dependence on USSR, which she didn't like)
- required considerable investment in defense
- kept India dependent on US, USSR (later this became over-dependence on USSR, which she didn't like)
4/ Soviet hands in the Indian govt initially scuttled attempts to normalize relations w/ China. They won the debate on how to respond to the 1970 "Mao smile." They cldnt prevent exchange of ambos in mid-1970s & later efforts. But their influence contd. to shape India's 🇨🇳 policy.
5/ While my book is primarily about the China-India-US triangle, one of the most fascinating parts of the research for me was discovering more about the China-India-Russia triangle. And there's an US angle there too
6/ 🇺🇸 dimension of 🇨🇳🇮🇳🇷🇺 in the Cold War
- 40s, 50s: US didn't like +ve China-India rels; USSR did
- 60s: US, USSR both like -ve China-India rels
- 70s, early/mid 80s: US liked +ve China-India rels; USSR didn't
- mid/late 80s: USSR kinda came around to US view of China-India rel
- 40s, 50s: US didn't like +ve China-India rels; USSR did
- 60s: US, USSR both like -ve China-India rels
- 70s, early/mid 80s: US liked +ve China-India rels; USSR didn't
- mid/late 80s: USSR kinda came around to US view of China-India rel
