On 13 April 2018, The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) hosted Prof. Hon-Shiang Lau, a research scholar of Chinese history, whose research findings have been well received in Taiwan and Belgium. Prof Lau gave a presentation on ‘How Tibet was never a part of China’ since antiquity. Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director VIF, presided over the meeting.
An interaction on India-Nepal relations and future prospects was held at the VIF on 27 March, 2018, with Prof. Vijay Kant Karna as the lead speaker. The session began with opening remarks by Mr. Sahay who complemented the people of Nepal, the political parties and the Election Commission of Nepal for smooth conduct of the massive exercise of holding elections at the local, provincial and national levels over an extended period of time, in a peaceful manner that gave a clear mandate to the new democratic order.
A brainstorming session on ‘India-Bhutan Relations and the Chinese Factor’ was conducted on 19 March, 2018. Director VIF, Dr. Arvind Gupta, delivered the opening remarks and laid out the context of India-Bhutan situation in the light of the Chinese road building and military activity going on in the disputed Doklam region of Bhutan, which was the major reason for India-China stand-off last year. Amb. Sudhir Vyas, Amb. Rajiv Sikri, Amb. TCA Rangachari, Lt. Gen. SL Narasimhan, Amb. Ashok Kantha, Col. V. Shankar, Amb. Dinkar Srivastava, Amb. Anil Wadhwa, Amb. Kanwal Sibal, Prof. Sujit Dutta, Lt.
A Round Table Discussion (RTD) on Afghanistan’s current situation and the way forward was held at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on 15 Nov 2017. The panel of discussants included a broad array of security and foreign policy experts, including Dr Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF, Amb Amar Sinha, India’s former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Lt Gen Ravi Sawhney, Amb Prabhat Shukla, among other experts.
Abstract The transit trade problems of Afghanistan are typical to any other landlocked country. As a landlocked country, Afghanistan has relied on Pakistan for its international trade. However, the transit trade of Afghanistan has remained unstable akin to escalated political relations between the two countries. Given economic importance of access to sea, the landlocked countries continued to raise their voice at the United Nations.
Highlights President Ghani dwelled on the causes of global uncertainty, the regional security context and the New US Strategy in South Asia. Drivers of Global Uncertainty
The Dokalam crisis, i.e. the border stand-off between China and India, which had kept the bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries on the boil for over two months, came to a peaceful resolution on Aug 28, 2017, with both sides disengaging their troops from what had seemed like an eyeball to eyeball confrontation. While the crisis has been resolved for now, its recurrence in some form or the other along the India-China border cannot be ruled out, especially with China taking the unsettled border as an excuse to push its territorial claims in contested territories.
H.E. Salahuddin Rabbani, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, concluded his three-day visit to India with a talk on ‘India-Afghanistan Relations: Recent Developments and Implications’, delivered at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on 12 Sep 2017. H.E. Rabbani, who visited India for the 2nd meeting of the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Council, described his interactions with his Indian counterpart Mrs. Sushma Swaraj and other key government officials as highly successful and productive. As part of his talk, H.E.
Following up on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s highly successful and ‘historic’ visit to India undertaken in the month of April, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a Round Table Discussion (RTD) on 06 Jun 2017 with Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on international relation.
Many in India often wonder why don’t we have better relations with Pakistan and how long will we keep on bickering and fighting. Many also point to the perils of a miscalculation given that the two countries are nuclear weapons states. The most famous articulation has, of course, been that the bilateral dialogue should be ‘uninterrupted and uninterruptible.