By – Bindiya Kamboj;

For many years now, India-China Relationship has moved in a dynamic and oscillatory fashion. It has moved from cooperative to conflictual and vice-versa. This is reflected from the rise and fall of “Hindi Chinni Bhai Bhai” from the times of Panchsheel agreement to the historic war of 1962. In the contemporary times, the ties of both Asian giants wigwag in same position and even came to standstill during their recent 2020-2022 skirmishes at the territorial borders that includes the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibetan Autonomous Region and near the border between Sikkim and Tibet Autonomous Region.

This paper throws light on the reconsideration of India-China relationship from the theoretical framework of Realism and Neoliberal Institutionalism. The realists believe that Beijing presents an enduring challenge to India that needs to be tackled from the amalgamation of two paths of External and Internal Balancing. On the other hand, Neoliberal Institutionalists point out the cooperative elements in the Indo-Chinese relationship in the areas of climate, space and technology, economy, trade and commerce among others. Both these approaches are used to understand the journey of their relationship characterised from cooperative to contentious.