Attitudes on Trans-Himalayan Cooperation

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Abstract

The aim of this essay is to understand the attitudes on Trans- Himalayan Cooperation. The approach was to pick up the main thoughts presented in the Fifth China-South Asia Cultural Forum (Chengdu, December 14-16, 2015) on the topic “Exploring Cooperation across the Himalayas”, synthesize those attitudes using a Q Method approach and suggests a SWOT Analysis to categorise the main cooperation issues and strategies. Five types of attitudes are named and described: i) Regional Cooperation for Peace and Development; ii) Effective Cooperation on Research and Education; iii) Effective Sectoral Cooperation; iv) Cooperation on Poverty Reduction; and v) Cooperation on Corridors. Two different strategies are discussed: a) a passive strategy that assumes that the economic dynamism between nearby countries can be threatened by terrorism fuelled by inequality, poverty, water shortages and energy instability; and b) an active strategy that explores the cooperation opportunities associated with globalization, exploring academic and research capabilities, designing sustainable water agreements, promoting energy and touristic resources or implementing Trans-Himalayan corridors.