Indian Ocean is of critical importance to India. The Indian peninsula juts out into the Indian Ocean. In fact, this is the only ocean in the world that is named after a country. The 21st century is a maritime century; therefore, the significance of the oceans would be enhanced all over. For India, Indian Ocean becomes important more than ever before. Trade and energy routes pass through the Indian Ocean, but a new challenge has emerged in the form of the rise of China. It is in this context that David Brewster’s book requires attention.

Written by foreign policy experts, academics and practioners, this book develops the frameworks and strategies for India’s foreign policy that can be adopted to meet the emerging challenges and non-traditional threats in the new world order. It studies the important aspects of India’s foreign policy in the present unsettled world order and comes up with strategies and policy suggestions. It raises several questions to highlight the future direction of foreign policy and the challenges that India may have to deal with in the coming years.

The Vivekananda International Foundation organised a virtual interactive session on the subject, “Armenian Genocide: History and Perspective” on 24 April 2020. Dr Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF delivered his opening remarks highlighting the relevance of history to understand the current geopolitics of Armenia, Turkey and the region in general. The Director, VIF posed question on the recurrence of genocide in the present period and conflicting interpretations about the genocide that occured between 1915 and 1924. Amb. Armen Martirosyan, Armenian Ambassador to India; Dr.

India-Central Asia relations gained momentum in the recent past with Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the five Central Asian Republics in 2015 and India’s permanent membership to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2017. During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Central Asia, several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Agreements were signed. The high-level exchange of visits between India and Central Asia has raised their bilateral relation profile. India is also contributing to the annual SCO Summits by suggesting a number of concrete ideas.