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On 11 Dec 2015, the VIF hosted ex-Prime Minister of Sweden Mr. Goran Persson for an interaction on regional economic prospects, climate change, terrorism and Europe’s relations with Russia, among other issues. The interaction kicked off with General NC Vij, Director, VIF, speaking about the positive aspects of India-Sweden bilateral relationship. He praised eloquently the Swedish defence industry, especially the Bofors guns, and hoped Sweden would capitalize on the ‘Make in India’ offer to give a further boost to the bilateral relationship. In his opening remarks, the Director also urged on the need to find a common answer to the global curse of terrorism through joint actions.

H.E. Goran Persson, an expert across a range of subjects including public affairs, finance, climate change, and international relations, among others, was quite forthcoming on all the issues he discussed with the members of the VIF faculty. He shared his views on the prospects of regional economic growth, especially India’s. He opined that India had a better prospect to maintain a higher growth rate for a longer duration than many other faster growing economies provided she did things right. International cooperation is one area where India scores over China and it is bound to come handy when the Indian economy enters the next phase of growth which would be driven primarily by demand for consumption, an export-import model. H.E Parsson, who was twice elected as the Prime Minister of Sweden, also bared his thoughts on the art of re-election. Among other things discussed by H.E. Parsson in his presentation were the effects of aging population on economies around the world, new political agendas which are being set across the South Asian region as part of a debate on the effects of aging on economic growth, the crisis facing the European Union, especially on counts of Euro and the refugee problem, the Syrian crisis, and the climate change. The members of VIF faculty vigorously engaged the former Swedish Prime Minister on all the issues raised by him through the course of his presentation.