The twenty-first century’s most consequential bilateral relationship is being rebuilt across the Himalayas. India and China are civilisational neighbours whose exchange of thought, faith and commerce long predates the modern state system, and who together account for nearly three billion people and two of the world’s fastest-growing major economies. After a difficult passage, they are again enlarging their common ground - managing differences with maturity, restoring dialogue, travel and trade, and converging on the understanding that one nation’s rise need not come at the other’s expense. Their engagement will do much to determine whether the emerging world order proves genuinely multipolar.

The book takes up the questions that matter most to that engagement. It follows the bilateral trajectory since 2014 - from early outreach through the border crisis to disengagement at Depsang and Demchok and the leaders’ meeting at Kazan - and asks what the present stabilisation rests upon. It examines the trade relationship and the pathways to a more balanced one; the stake both countries hold in multilateralism, the Global South and open trade at a moment when tariff-driven statecraft is unsettling the system; and the paradoxical effect of American transactional unilateralism.

It then turns to the regional and technological frontiers. Across South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and maritime Asia, the relationship emerges as not one rivalry but several distinct theatres, each shaped by local histories, institutions and the agency of regional states. On the technology frontier - artificial intelligence, green energy, biotechnology, space and cyberspace - the volume weighs where Chinese manufacturing capacity, Indian demand and two development-oriented research establishments create genuine scope for complementarity.

The volume’s distinguishing feature is its dialogic architecture. On each major question, Indian and Chinese perspectives converge on a shared vocabulary - competitive coexistence, competitive cooperation, complementary co-evolution.

Alok Bansal is the Executive Vice President of India Foundation and the Secretary General of Asian Eurasian Human Rights Forum (AEHRF). A seasoned strategic affairs analyst, he has previously served as the Executive Director of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) and has held research positions at leading Indian think tanks including the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS). He has authored/edited 10 books. His work focuses on maritime security, South Asian geopolitics, and internal dynamics of Pakistan. A former naval officer, he served in the Indian Navy for 32 years and commanded two warships. A PhD in international Affairs, he has been a visiting Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia.

Zhang Jiadong is Professor of International Relations, Director of Center for South Asia Studies, and Senior Researcher in Center for American Studies, Fudan University. His field of study includes China-US-India Relations, South Asia and anti terrorism issues. He is also the Director of Institute of Strategic Studies and International Security, at Fudan Institute of Belt and Road and Global Governance (BRGG). Prof Jiadong is the Vice Chairperson of Shanghai Institute for International Strategic Studies, and China Association for South Asian Studies. Previously, he has held the position of Second Secretary in Chinese Embassy, New Delhi from 2013 to 2015. He was also the Vice Secretary General in Dehong Prefecture Government in Yunan Province from 2020 to 2021.

Siddharth Singh is a Senior Research Fellow at India Foundation, New Delhi. He holds a Master’s in International Relations and an M.Phil. in Indo-Pacific Studies, both from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). His research engages contemporary Indo-Pacific affairs, Indian Ocean and India’s maritime diplomacy. He is also the Assistant Editor of the India Foundation Journal. He contributes articles and analytical commentary on Indo-Pacific and China to leading international and regional platforms, including ‘The Diplomat’, ‘Asia Times’ etc.