China feels that U.S. is its main adversary ... China is trying to match U.S. technological capabilities with its own strength in AI as a leap frog technology and a new concept of war ... But there will be lot of problems in implementing this concept of Intelligentization Warfare to reality. However, President Xi Jinping has thrown the gauntlet, and it is up to the U.S. the other adversaries and the rest of the world to follow this concept keenly.

In 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao said that China’s rise “will not come at the cost of any other country, will not stand in the way of any other country, nor pose a threat to any other country”. The broad Pacific Ocean is vast enough to embrace both China and the United States”, said Chinese President Xi Jinping while meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing in May 2015.

Covid-19 was a predictable and avoidable event, if the world had been more transparent and accountable, and less greedy and ambitious. It is important to analyse fast-evolving international developments, thoughts and trends to grasp the choices and imperatives ahead. What India needs to do, both internally and externally, may be assisted by examining extreme scenarios of a post-Covid world and a net-assessment covering variables such as geopolitical compulsions, examining ‘Pax-Sinica’ and its economic and security implications, and trends affecting globalisation and multilateralism.

India-Central Asia relations gained momentum in the recent past with Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the five Central Asian Republics in 2015 and India’s permanent membership to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2017. During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Central Asia, several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Agreements were signed. The high-level exchange of visits between India and Central Asia has raised their bilateral relation profile. India is also contributing to the annual SCO Summits by suggesting a number of concrete ideas.