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India’s Northeast, nestled in the lap of the Himalayas and surrounded by five countries: Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and China, holds significant geopolitical significance due to its strategic location. As the ‘nation’s gateway to the East’ and as the hinterland of the Bay of Bengal, the Northeast has undeniable potential to strengthen India’s connectivity with its eastern neighbours and realise its policy aspirations for the Indo-Pacific. Located at the juncture of South and Southeast Asia, the Northeast is also a geographic node through which the markets of multiple countries can be accessed, which makes it a coveted investment destination for other countries seeking to forge stronger partnerships with both geopolitical blocs. However, the Northeast remains an underutilised asset in India’s growth trajectory. It faces substantial challenges, such as fragile and inadequate infrastructure, limited cross-border trade, and climate vulnerabilities, which impede its integration into the wider Indo-Pacific region.
The US and India are historic partners as the world’s oldest and largest democracies, respectively. Over the years, their partnership has manifested across multiple domains, ushering in mutual prosperity, security, and well-being. The US Indo-Pacific Strategy, released in 2021, showcases the country’s commitment to “India’s continued rise and regional leadership” and complements New Delhi’s interest in fostering regional growth and strengthening its relationship with Southeast Asia. India’s Northeast thus becomes a zone of their converging policy interests, making it a natural platform for their collaborative initiatives to develop this space as the first step towards building a more free, connected, prosperous, and resilient Indo-Pacific.
Accordingly, the Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with the United States Consulate General Kolkata, has launched a project titled “U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy: North-Eastern Dialogues” or USIPS NED in short. The aim is to build awareness and foster discussions about the US Indo-Pacific Strategy and its potential role in developing trade connectivity and climate change mitigation in India’s Northeast. The project will be conducted through five policy dialogues in five Northeastern states (Meghalaya, Assam, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur) and two national-level dialogues (in Kolkata and New Delhi), engaging 200 stakeholders from across the Northeast, with a goal of 50 percent participation of women. These stakeholders will represent a range of sectors, such as government agencies, private business houses, civil society, professionals, academia, media, non-government organisations, and local communities.
To launch this project, an inception meeting was organised in hybrid mode at the ORF Kolkata premises on 30 September 2024. The key objective of this meeting was to finalise the pre- and post-dialogue survey questionnaires that are a part of this project, with suggestions and insights from invited experts. The pre-dialogue survey is designed to be conducted among the stakeholders before every dialogue to gauge their existing awareness of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy and their perceptions about potential India-US collaboration in trade connectivity and climate change in India’s Northeast. The post-dialogue survey will be conducted to measure if and how the experience of the dialogue has impacted or modified their opinions. The meeting began with a welcome address from Nilanjan Ghosh, Director, CNED and ORF, Kolkata, and Project Director USIPS NED. Elizabeth Lee, Acting Consul General, United States Consulate General Kolkata, graced the event by delivering special remarks. Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and Project In-Charge USIPS NED, introduced the project.
Subsequently, discussions were held on the surveys with ten experts, five joining digitally from the Northeast and five in-person from Kolkata. Experts who joined virtually included Jayanta Bhattacharya, Bureau Chief, Press Trust of India, Tripura; Sabyasachi Dutta, Founder-Director, Asian Confluence, Meghalaya; Pahi Saikia, Professor of Political Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam; Rakhee Bhattacharya, Professor and Chairperson, Special Centre for the Study of Northeast India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Khreizo Yhome, Senior Fellow, Asian Confluence, Meghalaya. The local participants who participated in person were Perminder Jeet Kaur, Senior Director, East and Northeast, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, West Bengal; Debashis Chakraborty, Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, West Bengal; Madhuchanda Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Presidency University, West Bengal; Suvojit Bagchi, Correspondent and Analyst, Oxford Analytica, TRT World, Prothom Alo (Indian Correspondent), West Bengal; and Sambit Dasgupta, Deputy Director, Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, West Bengal. The discussion was chaired by Sohini Bose, Associate Fellow, ORF and Project Coordinator, USIPS NED. Anutosh Biswas, Grant Officer Representative for USIPS-NED, also participated in the event.
The discussion helped identify key issues in trade connectivity and climate change in the Northeast, which need to be emphasised in upcoming dialogues. The questionnaires were appreciated for their comprehensiveness, and suggestions were made to align them more with the Northeast’s unique priorities and concerns. It was advised to include more questions on India’s current dynamics with neighbouring countries, which can impact the development of the Northeast; local community perspectives and their indigenous responses to climate change; the involvement of Japan, which already has major investments in the Northeast; and challenges arising from the Northeast’s unique geography and history of ethnic conflicts. It was also advised to include more open-ended questions in the pre-dialogue survey to increase the scope for verbatim responses that may not be otherwise possible for the stakeholders to articulate with limited response options. Refining the pre- and post-dialogue surveys according to these insights would help to make them more inclusive and sensitive to yield nuanced and genuine responses. The experts appreciated the timeliness and relevance of the project in the current geo-strategic scenario and expounded on how more awareness about the United States Indo-Pacific Strategy in India’s Northeast would create a larger scope for India-US collaborative growth. The event ended with a summarisation of key suggestions and a vote of thanks by the chair to the experts, setting the stage for the first policy dialogue in Meghalaya.
This event report has been drafted by Sohini Bose, Associate Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and Prachi Verma, Intern, Observer Research Foundation.
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