Vivekananda International Foundation | Seeking Harmony in Diversity

Mongolia’s Buddhist Diplomacy and India’s Union of Religious and Foreign Policy

The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), along with Indian, Japanese, and Mongolian partners, hosted its third Samvad (which, in Hindi, means “dialogue”) conference in Ulaanbaatar over last Friday and the weekend. As reported in BDG’s news...

September 16 , 2019

Some Lessons from Doklam

While the resolution of the Doklam stand-off as reported by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 28 Aug is being hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough and an achievement of sorts for India in the open source reports, this work tries to revisit...

September 6 , 2017

Asia- Africa Growth Corridor: Can It Be a Game Changer?

AAGC Vision Document - Origin and Institutions behind its Creation? Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) supported by Japan and India was unveiled on 24th May, 2017 during the 52nd Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) held in...

June 5 , 2017

Revision of Japanese Constitution: The Article 9 Dilemma

“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish...

May 31 , 2017

What’s the Real Story in Turkey?

I was in Ahmedabad when the attempted or rather failed ‘coup de tat’ took place in Turkey. I was to speak at a corporate function about India’s national security. However, my hosts requested me to first specifically speak for a few minutes on...

July 21 , 2016

Japan holds the G7 Summit - Focus on Indo Pacific

The Group of Seven (G7), an informal forum of the world’s leading industrialized countries--Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States--is also attended by representatives of the European Union. At the summit...

May 28 , 2016

Intense public debate in Japan over the Historic Security Legislation

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government passed a legislation on 19 September 2015 that now enables Japan’s military to mobilize overseas when Japan or its close ally is attacked, threatens Japan’s survival or poses a clear danger to its...

March 14 , 2016

Japan’s Security Outlook and Growing India-Japan Friendship

The summit and ministerial level meetings between Japan and India have taken place in right earnest and direction in the last decade. The successive meetings between Mr Shinjo Abe and Mr Modi now leave no doubt about the two Prime Ministers...

December 30 , 2015