Panel Discussion on India's Western Neighborhood: The Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran Triangle

Department of International Studies, Christ (deemed to be University), hosted a panel discussion on India's Western Neighbourhood: The Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran Triangle in a collaborative event with the School of Conflict and Strategic Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Department of Political Science, St. Joseph’s College and the Department of Political Science, Bangalore University on 1 December 2017. The event was felicitated by remarks from Dr.Venugopal Menon, Head of the Department, Department of International Studies, Christ (deemed to be University) and Fr Dr Jose CC, Head of Student affairs. In due attendance representing the institutions were, Dr Suba Chandran from NIAS, Dr Sujith and Dr Vinod from St. Joseph's college and Dr Surendra from Bangalore University. The highlights of the event are the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing and Panel discussion.

An MoU was signed by the four institutions to mark the beginning of an journey towards building a strategic community in Bangalore for holding regular discussions on topics of international pertinence. The MoU aims at  bringing about  the formation of an intellectual pool inclusive of scholars and students alike to a platform, enabling them to have interactions outside their respective institutions.

The successful signing of the MoU was followed by a panel discussion with Ambassador Latha Reddy and Mr Anand Arni, former Special Secretary in the Research & Analysis Wing. The discussion was moderated by Prof. John Dean, a Cultural Historian from the University of Versailles. The panelists without limiting themselves to discussing  India's relations with the neighborhood countries also provided insightful details on how India can improve its relations in the future while shedding some light on the current political scenarios in each country. Former ambassador Latha Reddy was able to give a brief on India's relations with each country. She highlighted how Afghanistan was thankful for India's soft power approach in the country and how India needs to have a better policy with Pakistan and also spoke about the influence of US on India's relations with Iran. The fact that relations today can never be completely bilateral due intertwined nature of international relations today was also brought about by the former ambassador. Mr. Anand Arni, on the other hand, was able to give an in depth understanding by explaining the ground reality of these countries and how they affect India's relations. The growing role of Saudi and it's effect on India's relations with Iran was put forward by Mr.Arni. The discussed that followed unveiled a great deal about the soft power in Afghanistan, the Baluchistan issue, leadership and its effect on the relations, Shia-Sunni divide in Afghanistan and Pakistan's political instability and its impact on India. All in all, the event ended on a successful note, promising more of such interactions in the near future.