EVENTS

China’s influential role in international affairs has been facilitated by China’s membership in multilateral institutions (UN/UNSC, IMF, World Bank, GATT/WTO) created after the Second World War. This has not precluded China’s more recent initiatives in creating new international institutions headquartered in China like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). While the PRC’s actions within global governance structures have been increasingly used to assert its strategic interests, the creation of international structures headquartered in China provides it with a “safety net” to pursue its core multilateral objectives in the Eurasian region. How will these two dimensions influence China’s navigation of an increasingly fractured multilateral global governance system?

About the Speaker

Amb. Asoke Mukerji is a Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi; an elected member of the Governing Council of the United Service Institution (USI) for 2023-2025; and a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London. He served for over 37 years in the Indian Foreign Service, retiring as India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York in December 2015. He represented India in the World Trade Organization in Geneva, where he chaired the WTO Committee on Special Commitments for Trade in Services. He headed India’s international inter-agency interactions on countering terrorism and on cyber issues during 2010-2012. On the bilateral front, he represented India in the UK (2007-2010), Kazakhstan (2005-2007), Russia (2001-2005), the UAE (1998-2001), and in Central Asia (1990-1992). In July 2018, the University of East Anglia (UK) awarded him a Doctorate in Civil Laws (honoris causa) degree for his contributions to diplomacy. He teaches diplomacy at the Diplo Foundation and writes and publishes regularly on international affairs in India and abroad. Among his eight published books is India and the United Nations: A Photo Journey 1945-2015 (2015).

About the Chair

Amb. Kishan S. Rana is an Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. He was associated with the Indian Foreign Service for over 35 years, i.e., from 1960 to 1995. During his tenure, he has worked in the Indian Embassy, Beijing. He has served as the Ambassador and High Commissioner to Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Mauritius, and Germany. He has also been posted as the Consul General in San Francisco. He has authored multiple books like Churchill and India: Manipulation or Betrayal? (2022), Diplomacy at the Cutting Edge (2016), The Contemporary Embassy (2013), and Diplomacy of the 21st Century (2011).

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