A. India and China: Collision or Collusion?

China and India are on pace to become two of the three largest economic and military powers by the middle of this century. The two countries—home to a combined 2.5 billion people and embroiled in decades-long territorial disputes—also represent contrasting models of governance and economic development. At the same time, commercial, economic, and cultural relations between the two states are burgeoning in a manner few would have anticipated fifteen years ago. This panel will assess the various areas of cooperation and competition between the two Asian giants, and will discuss how their relations with other countries—including the United States, Pakistan, and Burma—might shape their bilateral relationship.

B. The 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit and Beyond

This session will assess the outcomes of the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit and the two parallel events, the Nuclear Security Symposium and Nuclear Industry Summit. The panelists will review progress in nuclear security since the 2010 Washington Summit and forecast the implementation of the Seoul Communique and Obama’s four year lock-down goal. Panelists will also discuss a new vision of global nuclear security governance beyond 2014 and ways to utilize the Nuclear Security Summit process to realize this vision.

C. Trade and Security Linkages

Trade and security are linked by both specific and symbolic rationales. As an example of the former, East Asian trade and investment over the past two decades has increasingly become dominated by regional and, ultimately, global supply chains. In a number of sectors, parts and components cross and re-cross national borders many times in the creation of finished products. Thus, assuring “freedom of the seas” through diplomacy and security provides a vital underpinning to continued economic growth and prosperity. On a wider plain, regional trade agreements such as APEC, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the East Asian Summit can provide the institutional basis for future economic integration and assure that the major powers in the region have alternative paths for pursuing complementary trade and security goals.

D. Russia’s Leadership Transition and Its Implications in East Asia

In May 2012 Vladimir Putin will be inaugurated as President of Russia for the third time. He will succeed current president, Dmitry Medvedev, who will take Putin’s position as prime minister. Will this change influence Moscow’s foreign policy? In this panel leading experts on Russia’s policy towards East Asia will discuss the impact of this reshuffle on Moscow’s approach to the region, its international organizations, as well as Sino-Russian, Russo-Japanese, and Russo-Korean relations.