It is true that the conduct of foreign affairs is an outcome of a two-way interaction between domestic compulsions and prevailing international climate. It is both, the domestic and the international scenarios, that affect framing of the foreign policy.

In 1962, the Indo-China conflict ensued regarding a dispute over the boundary between the nations in the Aksai Chin region in Ladakh and the North-East Frontier Agency (present-day Arunachal Pradesh). Domestically, India was an infant nation and its sovereignty and territorial integrity had to be protected at all costs. Internationally, the world was in a zone of cold war and many nations allied with any one of the two superpowers. After the war, India had to approach USA and Britain for military assistance to recover. Image of India was damaged internationally and domestically as well. Nehru was criticised for the naive assessment of Chinese intentions and for the first time a No-Confidence Motion against his government was moved and debated in the parliament. Defence Minister V.K. Menon gave his resignation after the conflict ended. This conflict showed India the volatility of its Northeast region and made it conscious of its national integrity.