Nirupama Rao is a retired Indian diplomat who has spent much of her career focused on China. She joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973 and went on to serve as Foreign Secretary, Ambassador to China, and Ambassador to the United States. In recent years, Rao has been a visiting fellow at a variety of institutions, including Brown University, Columbia University and The Wilson Center, as she works on her forthcoming book: Telling it on the Mountain: India and China, 1949-1962 (Penguin/Random House). In 2018, Rao founded the South Asian Symphony Foundation, an organization based in Bangalore dedicated to promoting peace in South Asia, and she has published her own music and poetry as well. Rao lives in Bangalore, and this interview was conducted via Zoom in mid-August, when Indian and Chinese troops had backed down after clashes in June. Hostilities resumed at the end of August.
Nirupama Rao
Illustration by Lauren Crow
Q: Relations between India and China took a sharp dive in Jun
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