Highlights President Ghani dwelled on the causes of global uncertainty, the regional security context and the New US Strategy in South Asia. Drivers of Global Uncertainty
The Dokalam crisis, i.e. the border stand-off between China and India, which had kept the bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries on the boil for over two months, came to a peaceful resolution on Aug 28, 2017, with both sides disengaging their troops from what had seemed like an eyeball to eyeball confrontation. While the crisis has been resolved for now, its recurrence in some form or the other along the India-China border cannot be ruled out, especially with China taking the unsettled border as an excuse to push its territorial claims in contested territories.
H.E. Salahuddin Rabbani, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, concluded his three-day visit to India with a talk on ‘India-Afghanistan Relations: Recent Developments and Implications’, delivered at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on 12 Sep 2017. H.E. Rabbani, who visited India for the 2nd meeting of the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Council, described his interactions with his Indian counterpart Mrs. Sushma Swaraj and other key government officials as highly successful and productive. As part of his talk, H.E.
Following up on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s highly successful and ‘historic’ visit to India undertaken in the month of April, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a Round Table Discussion (RTD) on 06 Jun 2017 with Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on international relation.
Many in India often wonder why don’t we have better relations with Pakistan and how long will we keep on bickering and fighting. Many also point to the perils of a miscalculation given that the two countries are nuclear weapons states. The most famous articulation has, of course, been that the bilateral dialogue should be ‘uninterrupted and uninterruptible.
16-17 May 2017, the VIF and Pathfinder Foundation, Sri Lanka, jointly held a three-session Round Table Discussion on India-Sri Lanka bilateral cooperation. The focus was on promoting ‘blue economy’, relatively a new concept that focuses on sustainable exploitation of marine resources for benefits of the world in general and that for the coastal states in particular. The first session focused on sustainable exploitation of aquatic living resources like fish and other life forms.
The VIF hosted an internal discussion on ‘Afghanistan: Emerging Realignment’ on 04 May 2017. The purpose was to consider Afghanistan’s dwindling security environment and imperatives for India to hedge its bets against a resurgent Taliban waiting to take over the reins of power in Kabul while the new US administration is yet to firm up its future Afghanistan strategy.
Amb Tariq Karim, Bangladesh’s former High Commissioner to India and a Distinguished Fellow at the VIF, delivered a talk on some of the recent developments in Bangladesh on. He broadly dwelt upon the Islamic State (IS) factor in Bangladesh, the upcoming elections and the trajectory of Indo-Bangladesh relations should there be a change in government of Bangladesh. The Talk was followed by an interactive session. Amb Satish Chandra, Lt Gen Ravi Sawhney and Amb Veena Sikri, among others, interacted with the speaker.
A seven-member delegation of Bangladesh Jatiyo Party, led by Mr Ziauddin Ahmed (Bablu), Member of Parliament and former advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh visited the VIF.
A Round Table Meet on ‘Developing Counter Narrative to Radicalization: Bangladesh Experience’ was held at Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi, on the 11th of November, 2016. Visiting expert from Bangladesh, Lt. Col. (Retd.), Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir, recipient of Swadinata Padak, Bangladesh’s highest civilian award and author of several books, was the key speaker.