On June 1, 2018, I was invited by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the organiser of the Shangri-La Dialogue, to speak at a special session entitled Competition And Cooperation In China-India Relations, right before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's keynote speech. The other panellist was Mr Ram Madhav, the national general secretary of India's Bharatiya Janata Party.

I was surprised to find how we both focused on cooperation rather than competition as if the different speeches were written by the same person.