Neighbourhood Studies
Re-asserting ‘Neighbourhood First’- External Affairs Minister’s Sri Lanka Visit

Keeping up with the momentum of 2015 which was a historic year in terms of high level bilateral visits, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj paid a successful visit to Sri Lanka on February 5 and 6, 2016, right at the beginning on New Year. She at....

Pak-Bangladesh Diplomatic Spat: Tip of the Iceberg

Recent months have seen Pakistan and Bangladesh expelling each other’s diplomats and ‘summoning’ each other’s envoys to lodge ‘strong’ protests. The expulsions and ‘summoning’ are just the tip of the iceberg, reflective of a deeper ma....

Bilateral Ties to Move Forward During Nepali PM Oli's Visit to India

Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who had surprisingly been the most vocal critic of India, at times even taking his criticism to personal level, using undiplomatic language, seems to have finally relented by deciding to pay an official visit to....

Interaction with a Nepalese Civil Society Delegation

Leading a six-member Nepalese Civil society delegation, Mr. Daman Nath Dhungana, a legal luminary in Nepal and former Speaker of the House of Representative, visited the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on 27 January 2016 for an interaction....

Pakistan and The Saudi-Iran Face-Off

Pakistan’s diplomatic plate is full. The skill of its leadership and diplomats is being tested as they negotiate an unfolding regional situation. There are at least four key external issues that require immediate attention: to keep the Indo-Pak pea....

Challenges India Faces in Resuming Dialogue with Pakistan

Prime Minister Modi’s dialogue initiative towards Pakistan is premised on its stated willingness to make no distinction between good and bad terrorists, which implies a readiness to eliminate not only terrorists attacking targets within Pakistan bu....

India- Bangladesh Relations: An Enduring Economic Partnership

India and Bangladesh share a long history of enduring economic partnership and bi-lateral development. The relationship between the two countries has been one based on mutual trust and cooperation. Our multi-faceted economic relations encompass trad....

Diffidence, Defiance and Delusion: Maldives in Denial

'That which springs from comfort & consolation, is delusion of perception; For truth is absolute, not contingent on convenience'
Human beings often conveniently slide into a ‘state of denial’ to avoid and evade unset....

Maverick Pakistan : Army Leading It to Oblivion

The Pakistan Army continues to baffle. Known to be the power behind Pakistan’s foreign and security related policies its hold is also for the purpose of perpetuating its control over Pakistan’s polity and in fact almost every facet of existence o....

Interaction with Prof Hari Bansh Jha on the Madhesi Uprising in Nepal

On 04 December 2015, the VIF invited Hari Bansh Jha, Professor of Economics, Nepal’s Tribhuvan’s University for an interaction on the current political uprising in Nepal and its implications, especially for India. Prof. Jha presented an insightfu....

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