Vivekananda International Foundation | Seeking Harmony in Diversity

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative Concept, Context and Assessment by Siegfried O. Wolf, Springer, Switzerland, 2020, £88, ISBN 978-3-030-16198

Aakriti Vinayak

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative that was officially launched in April 2015, promised to be a game changer. The economic corridor that would link Kashgar in Xinjiang to Gwadar in Baluchistan five years later has entered its second phase. While the first phase was essentially about electricity projects and railway lines the second phase has special emphasis on development of special economic zones, agriculture, industry, trade and science and technology.

May 23, 2020 Books/Book Review

Round Table Discussion on ‘Post COVID-19: India and the Neighbourhood’

Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a Round Table Discussion (RTD) on ‘Post COVID-19: India and the Neighbourhood’ on 11 May 2020. Amb Satish Chandra, Vice Chairman VIF, delivered the opening remarks followed with presentations by Amb Ranjit Rae, Amb Ashok Kantha, Amb Pinak Ranjan Chakraborty and Prof S.D. Muni. From VIF, Gen Ravi Sawhney, Dr Sreeradha Datta, Col Jaideep Chanda attended the RTD. The RTD was an attempt to reflect on India’s position and role in the South Asian region Post COVID-19 scenario.

May 13, 2020 Event Report

Talk by Prof. Rounaq Jahan and Prof. Rehman Sobhan on Bangladesh: Promise and Performance

The Vivekananda International Foundation recently hosted a talk Bangladesh: Promise and Performance, delivered by Prof. Rounaq Jahan and Prof. Rehman, chaired by Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF. Prof. Rounaq Jahan began her talk by giving a detailed account of the promises made by Bangladesh and the expectations within and outside the country. She emphasized on the fact that the emergence of Bangladesh was unique because it was the first case of successful emergence of state based on linguistic nationalist movement in the postcolonial scenario.

March 23, 2020 Event Report

Interaction with Honorable Md. Hassan Mahmud Esq., Minister for Information of Bangladesh

The Vivekananda International Foundation organized a talk by honourable Md. Hassan Mahmud Esq. on India Bangladesh Relations, chaired by Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF. Md. Hassan began by emphasizing India's role during the time of Bangladesh's independence and how the relationship between the two immediate neighbours has shaped over the period of time. He particularly emphasized the years since 2009 as the golden phase of interaction and cooperation between the two countries especially under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

March 23, 2020 Event Report

Pakistan: Nuclear Deterrence and Ideology

Amb D P Srivastava, Distinguished Fellow, VIF

The nuclear age coincided with the advent of the Cold War. The concept of deterrence evolved in the background of ideological divide. However, both sides kept nuclear deterrence insulated from ideological considerations. This pragmatism was born out of imperative of survival. The two sides also signed the Helsinki Accord in 1975 committing them not to change the territorial status quo in Europe through use of force. Both these conditions, which contributed to stability of deterrence during the worst days of the Cold War, are absent in Pakistan’s nuclear policy.

March 16, 2020 Issue Brief

2nd BIMSTEC Think Tanks Dialogue on Regional Security - Conference Proceedings

2nd BIMSTEC Think Tanks Dialogue on Regional Security (27-28 November 2019) The Second Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Think Tanks Dialogue on Regional Security was held at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), New Delhi on 27-28 November 2019. Delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the BIMSTEC Secretariat participated in the meeting.

January 29, 2020 Paper

VIF Delegation Visit to Myanmar

A delegation from VIF led by Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director and comprising of Lt Gen (Retd) Ravi Sawhney, Amb (Retd) Gautam Mukhopadhaya, Dr Sreeradha Datta and Col Jaideep Chanda visited Myanmar from 9 – 12 December 2019.

January 02, 2020 Event Report

Round Table Discussion on India-Nepal Relations

The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organized a Round Table Discussion to discuss India-Nepal relations on 7th November 2019. This everlasting friendship is now also being called a ‘strategic partnership’. This relationship was analysed, considering China factor, wherein India needs to balance out the pressure and leverage to Nepal. While India has been leveraging its neighbours, they have been using China card against them.

December 26, 2019 Event Report

Counterproductive Effects of Sanctions - The Myanmar Case Study

Jaideep Chanda

This paper attempts to analyse the trend of certain Western countries and the United Nations (UN) to impose or recommend imposition of sanctions on other countries, using Myanmar as a case study. Presently, certain bans have already been imposed or recommended to be imposed by Israel, United States and the UN on officials of Myanmar in the aftermath of the Rohingya Crisis. But this paper is not about Rohingyas and human rights violations. As such, the paper neither concurs nor dispels the allegations made against the Myanmar Government.

October 28, 2019 Paper

RISS-VIF Dialogue on Afghanistan

The Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), Moscow, hosted Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) at Moscow on 24-25 September 2019, for a two-day Round Table Conference (RTD) on ‘Afghanistan Crisis and the Problems of its Settlement: Prospects of Russia-India Cooperation in Afghanistan;

October 25, 2019 Event Report