New Delhi: On ‘Talking Point‘, from Brisbane, Kevin Rudd, twice Prime Minister of Australia, Author of, ‘The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the US and Xi Jinping’s China’, President & CEO, Asia Society and President, Asia Society Policy Institute in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi.
Underlining “there can be no fundamental normalisation of the China-India relationship until the border is dealt with as India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar has correctly said”, Mr Rudd tells StratNews Global, “that is fundamental to normalisation of relationships across the board”. The two-time Australia PM says “as strategic competition intensifies between Beijing and Washington, China will also continue to look at its range of diplomatic possibilities with Japan, India, maybe even Australia to lessen the underlying strategic tension with China”. Pointing to Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev “who fundamentally resolved the underpinning tensions between the then Soviet Union and China when they agreed on the massive Soviet-Chinese and now Russian and Chinese border that led to a 30-year process of normalisation between Moscow and Beijing, culminating in what we saw signed earlier this year on the Fourth of February of a new strategic partnership between China and the Russian Federation, which knows ‘no limits’, Mr Rudd says “It’s not probable but I would not rule out the possibility that Xi Jinping, perhaps after the 20th Communist Party Congress actively thinks about ways in which the impasse with Delhi could be dealt with. It should always be on our radar for the future”.
Watch this wide-ranging interview with Kevin Rudd for more on how the “risk of accidental conflict, crisis and war” can be made an “avoidable war” through “managed strategic competition between China and the U.S. with some of the experience from the Cold War”, whether he sees any signs of that actually happening, ” the uncomfortable truth that there can never be peace at any price”, decades of his studying and interacting directly with Chinese leaders in Mandarin, Xi Jinping’s world view from what he analyses as ten concentric circles from staying in power to changing the global rules based order, whether America will accept being number two, India, the LAC, galwan, his government and Quad 1.0, Shinzō Abe’s foresight on China, Taiwan and Xi Jinping’s likely playbook, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s China engagement in the 1970s vs appeasement, AUKUS and the new Australian Labour government’s stance and Mr Rudd’s attempt at standing for elections for the UN Secretary General’s post.
