EVENTS

All are invited

Abstract        

In a recent meeting between the Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it was finally agreed that Japan, China and South Korea would have a Trilateral Summit Meet in Seoul at the end of this month or early next month. Irrespective of the agenda and outcomes of the proposed Trilateral Summit, the very agreement to have it, is considered to be important turning point in the regional politics, which has been going through lots of turns and transformation in recent years. The most consequential player of the region China has moved from ‘peaceful rise’ to ‘growing assertiveness’ to ‘stagnating growth’. Japan has also moved from a ‘peace constitution’ to search for ‘normal state’ and resulting into a ‘non-apologetic’ and ‘assertive’ Japan. South Korea has also tried to reach out China by having regular summits with China and joining China-led AIIB, though maintaining its close alliance with the US. North Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-un has also been apparently challenging Chinese ‘leverage’ and trying to ‘diversify’ its foreign relations. The US has been less clear in articulating its strategy for the region and it seems that rather than having its ‘prime-mover’ status, Washington seems to get confined to a ‘second-fiddle’ in the regional politics. These changes, though nascent, have potential to fundamentally transform the regional architecture of East Asia. In the above context, it would be pertinent to contemplate India’s position and future strategy in the region. The presentation would try to decipher meaning and implications of the proposed trilateral for India.

About the Speaker

Dr. Sandip Kumar Mishra is Assistant Professor of Korean Studies in the Department of East Asian Studies at University of Delhi. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi. He writes a monthly column named East Asia Compass at the IPCS website. He completed his Master degree in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University and obtained his M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from the same university working in the field of Korean Studies. He studied Korean Language in South Korea and has been Visiting Fellow and Visiting Scholar at many South Korean research institutes and universities. He also had a unique opportunity to visit North Korea on a research trip in 2013. The areas of his research interests are Inter-Korea Relations, North Korean Nuclear Issue, International Relations of East Asia and Korea, East Asian Security, and India-Korea Relations.