The Water Issue in China-India Relations and Its Impact on the US Indo-Pacific Strategy

Date: Friday, 13 October
Time: 15:00 – 16:30Venue: AM104, Alan MacDiarmid Bldg, Kelburn Campus VUW
Register: ChinaCentre@vuw.ac.nz

Abstract
In January 2021, just a few weeks before Donald Trump’s term as the US president ended, the White House released the “US strategic framework for the Indo-Pacific.” This declassified operational policy document identifies the water issue as one of the “continental challenges” of Asia in the 21st century. Against this backdrop, Dr. Antonina Luszczykiewicz and Dr. Patrick Mendis will explore the increasing tensions related to Beijing’s control over transboundary rivers originating from the Tibetan Plateau. This climate-sensitive area provides a lifeline to almost half of the global population. Moreover, the researchers will analyze the US policy towards China, India, and other countries of South and Southeast Asia as well as Washington's growing engagement in the region in the context of water diversions and possible "water wars" in the future.

About the Speakers

Dr. Antonina Luszczykiewicz, an assistant professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and a visiting scholar at the University of Auckland, has until recently served as a Fulbright senior scholar at Indiana University-Bloomington in the United States.

Dr. Patrick Mendis, a former American diplomat and military professor in the NATO and the Indo-Pacific of the US Department of Defense, is a distinguished visiting professor of transatlantic relations at the University of Warsaw, Poland.