India’s Counter-Terrorism Diplomacy Towards China: Issues and Trends

Abstract

India’s policy towards China has been to limit military tensions on the contested border through expanded bilateral economic engagement, high-level political contacts and enhanced multilateral cooperation on international issues. Counter-terrorism diplomacy is one such instrument, which has been viewed by India as an important diplomatic tool to convince China about the dangers of terrorism emanating from Pakistan. But China’s uncooperative attitude towards India by repeatedly undermining the Modi government’s diplomatic efforts to pressurize Pakistan has raised serious doubts about India’s counter-terror diplomatic engagement with China. For India, the main source of terrorism is Pakistan. For China, Pakistan is its all-weather friend. Beijing’s selective characterization of terrorist threat poses several challenges to the success of India’s counter-terrorism efforts. Consequently, India has not been able to cope with Pakistan’s asymmetric strategy of using terrorism, as Pakistan continues to mobilize China’s unconditional help to ward off India’s pressure.