In a stunning demonstration of its growing prowess in the cutting edge space research and technology, on June 11, a Chinese Long March-2F rocket successfully launched the longest ever manned Chinese mission with its second woman astronaut among the crew.
Introduction As against the initial decades of the 20th century which saw a sharply divided world, the first two decades of the new millennium are witnessing a coming together of people and nations increasingly due to factors such as economic interests, political ideologies, common civilisational values and mutually shared concerns for global challenges.
Whatever yardstick we choose to apply – size of the economy and its rate of growth, military hardware and pace of modernisation, stability of the polity and the government; size, population and geo-political setting – China qualifies for a major power status. Click here to read full Paper
VIF organized its monthly series of talks by eminent persons, Vimarsha on 28th June 2013 where Mr. R N Ravi, former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau, was invited to speak on the Conflict along India-China Border.
VIF welcomed the Iranian Ambassador to India, HE Mr. Gholam Reza Ansari for an interaction on 28th June 2013. Amb Ansari candidly expressed his views on India-Iran relations, Iranian Presidential elections and Iranian foreign policy with respect to Syria, Afghanistan et al. Discussing economic relations between India and Iran, Amb Ansari highlighted that there is a greater need to diversify trade in order to strengthen the partnership. He also called for greater exchange and cooperation between business communities from the two nations.
On 25 June 2013, Mr David McKean, Director of Policy Planning in the US Department of State and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State called on Mr Ajit Doval, KC, Director, VIF in his office to discuss issues of mutual concern to the US and India. Among other subjects, the present security situation in the Af-Pak region and possible outcomes in Afghanistan post-2014 were discussed. Ambassador PP Shukla, Joint Director, VIF and Lt Gen RK Sawhney, Distinguished Fellow, VIF were also present during the interaction.
Vivekananda International Foundation released a Study on “Framework for Indo-Japanese Strategic Partnership and Cooperation”, jointly conducted with the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (JINF) on 4th June 2013 at the VIF premises.
On 02 May 2013, VIF hosted an interaction session with a delegation from Taiwan. Indo-Taiwan relations, Taiwan-China relations, Indo-China relations, and the US policy of rebalancing in Asia were some of the agendas for discussion. The session was chaired by Lt. Gen. (retd) R K Sawhney, Distinguished Fellow VIF, who welcomed the Taiwanese delegation and laid out the structure that the session was to follow. Taiwanese delegation consisting of seven members was led by Dr. Liu Fu Kuo, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.
Introduction The above subject has been primarily dealt from the foreign policy and security point of view. Many believe that strategic challenges should now include those relating to energy, environment, population, food, health, climate change and the like.
On 29 March 2013, VIF welcomed Ambassador Alon Ushpiz, Israeli Ambassador to India, and the delegation from Galilee International Management Institute (GIMI), Israel for an interaction on Indo-Israeli cooperation. The session was chaired by Ambassador P. P. Shukla, Joint Director VIF, who introduced Amb Ushpiz, welcomed Lt. Gen (retd) JFR Jacob, one of the Indian War Heroes, and pitched the agenda for discussion.