BRIDGING BORDERS: INDIA-NEPAL RELATIONS IN A CHANGING GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE

Recipient of numerous Presidential awards including the PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM, a double degree and PhD holder, Lieutenant General Shokin Chauhan is an outstanding scholar-general. Commissioned into the Indian Army in 1979, General Chauhan commanded elite formations like 1 Corps and was Director General of Assam Rifles, India`s oldest and largest paramilitary force.

Post retirement, General Chauhan was appointed the Chairman of the Cease Fire Monitoring Group and was chartered to ensure that the groups engaged in insurgency in the North East over the last 65 years, follow laid down ground rules. He re-invigorated the peace process and was successful in bringing back into mediations the NSCN (K), an insurgent group that had broken its cease fire with the Government of India. Further, he successfully negotiated an extension of a lapsed cease fire agreement with all the Naga insurgent groups.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the prestigious National Defence College, General Chauhan was commissioned into the 11 Gorkha Rifles in December 1979. In 1984, as a young officer, he led a detachment of ski troopers tasked with capturing, defending and patrolling the Bilafondla Pass on the Siachen Glacier. His vast experience covers counterterrorist operations in the Kashmir Valley and the North East, both at the tactical and strategic level.

In addition to his military leadership, the General`s expertise also includes military diplomacy, honed during his time as Defence Attaché in Nepal. His tenure there uniquely positioned him to gain firsthand knowledge of the country, its issues vis à vis its neighbours, and its advantages.

Recognised as amongst the foremost authorities on India-Nepal relations, General Chauhan`s PhD thesis, 1ndia-Nepal Strategic Relations in the 21st Century, has been highly acclaimed. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies and holds the United Service Institute`s Field Marshal KM Cariappa Chair of Excellence.