Articles By Claude Arpi

How the Chinese fooled Nehru in Tibet

How the Chinese fooled Nehru in Tibet

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 02 Jun , 2015

While the Indian archives are still jealously kept by the Ministry of External Affairs (and other Indian ministries), the Chinese are slowly (and selectively) declassifying their archives. A...

More

Ten truths about the 1962 War

Ten truths about the 1962 War

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 25 May , 2015

Here are some truths about the 1962 China’s War which are not often mentioned in history books or Reports from the Government. Of course, this list is not exhaustive. 1.  The precise location of...

More

China visit and after – Undoing Nehru’s folly

China visit and after – Undoing Nehru’s folly

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 19 May , 2015

A few months ago, a European diplomat confidentially told me, ‘in fact, the job of Modi is just to undo the knots in which the UPA tied up India in the past’. He was probably thinking of the...

More

Chasing the Flies and the Tigers

Chasing the Flies and the Tigers

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol. 30.1 Jan-Mar 2015 | Date: 17 May , 2015

There is another ‘Actual Combat’ in the CMC’s dual approach, which has regularly come in the national news during the past year. It is the resolute fight against corruption, at all the...

More

Xi Jinping’s brotherly love for Pakistan

Xi Jinping’s brotherly love for Pakistan

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 14 May , 2015

As Prime Minister is preparing to pay his maiden visit to Beijing (as Prime Minister), it necessary to come back on another visit, President Xi Jinping’s trip to Pakistan and the enormity of...

More

Can Indian Navy deter China’s Two Silk Roads

Can Indian Navy deter China’s Two Silk Roads

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 07 May , 2015

The 10-day Indo-French naval exercise code-named ‘Varuna’ recently held off the Goa coast did not get much coverage in the Indian media. The event was important for several reasons which...

More

No tunnel under the Everest ...but a road to Xinjiang?

No tunnel under the Everest ...but a road to Xinjiang?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 22 Apr , 2015

When one watches China, it is gratifying to be right once in a while. It does not happen every day. …can a tunnel really be drilled through the Himalayan mountains? Is it technically...

More

36 Rafales for the Indian Air Force!

36 Rafales for the Indian Air Force!

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 11 Apr , 2015

The highlight of yesterday’s Hollande-Modi encounter at the Elysee Palace has been the ‘purchase’ of 36 Rafales for the Indian Air Force. I write ‘purchase’ because the deal is not...

More

Modi’s visit to France and ‘The Make in India’ project

Modi’s visit to France and ‘The Make in India’ project

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 09 Apr , 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is embarking on a 9-day tour abroad during which he will visit France, Germany and Canada. His first stop will be in Paris (April 9-12). A few comments on his visit to...

More

Demchok and the New Silk Road: China's double standard

Demchok and the New Silk Road: China's double standard

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 04 Apr , 2015

On May 23, Scoop Newsreported that the Chief Executive Councilor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Rigzin Spalbar wrote to J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed requesting...

More

Are the Rafales, Mirages?

Are the Rafales, Mirages?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 26 Mar , 2015

The first dog fight on the French multi-purpose combat aircraft is on in full swing. It is not a battle in the air, but through communiqués, articles by ‘experts’, information and...

More

Roads to the Border ...and tourism

Roads to the Border ...and tourism

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 13 Mar , 2015

While we regularly come across articles about the Border Road Organization (under the Ministry of Defence) struggling to build roads in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, China is going faster and...

More

Dassault can also sign contracts

Dassault can also sign contracts

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 15 Feb , 2015

A few weeks ago, I mentioned on this website, the long, very long negotiation process between Dassault Aviation and the Government of India to purchase 18 Rafales Multi Role Combat...

More

Does Obama really want to split China?

Does Obama really want to split China?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 13 Feb , 2015

When it was announced that President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama were both going to attend the US National Prayer Breakfast, an annual ‘religious’ gathering held in Washington, Beijing...

More

Chinese Wild Claims in Arunachal

Chinese Wild Claims in Arunachal

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 22 Jan , 2015

The Chinese are not happy at all. Why? Because the Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida dared to speak about what Beijing calls “a Chinese territorial area adjacent to India as Indian...

More

The Rafale Saga

The Rafale Saga

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 08 Jan , 2015

Very few in India know the meaning of the French word ‘Rafale’, which is now associated with the supply of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian Air Force (IAF);...

More

Dealing with China

Dealing with China

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 15 Dec , 2014

 How to deal with China has been a problem for the Indian diplomacy from the day the People’s Liberation Army entered Eastern Tibet in October 1950. South Block (both the Ministry of External...

More

The CIA and China

The CIA and China

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 12 Dec , 2014

The much-awaited report (summary) from Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program is finally in the public domain. Its conclusion are clear, the Intelligence...

More

President Xi Jinping Comes Calling-On

President Xi Jinping Comes Calling-On

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol. 29.4 Oct-Dec 2014 | Date: 29 Nov , 2014

At the Indian Council of World Affairs, the Chinese President hoped that China and India would be the ‘express trains’ driving regional development as well as the ‘twin anchors’ of...

More

Nehru’s Pacifism had nearly cost us Tawang

Nehru’s Pacifism had nearly cost us Tawang

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 25 Nov , 2014

It is entirely due to Major Bob Khathing’s courage and swift action, backed by the Assam Governor, that Tawang is part of India. Had Jawaharlal Nehru had his way, it would have been Chinese...

More