Event ReportsPublished on Jan 03, 2025
USIPS NED Meghalaya Dialogue: Event Report

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The United States Indo-Pacific Strategy North Eastern Dialogue project aims to build awareness about the US Indo-Pacific Strategy, released in 2021, in India’s Northeast region and the role it can play in developing trade, connectivity and climate resilience through possible U.S-India collaborations. This initiative, spearheaded by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the United States Consulate General in Kolkata, seeks to manifest this partnership across multiple domains, ushering in mutual prosperity, security, and well-being. The aim is to bring forth innovative solutions from various sectors such as government, private business houses, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and most importantly, the youth of the 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.

The first regional dialogue of the USIPS NED project was scheduled as a day-long event in Shillong, Meghalaya, on 26 November 2024. The key objective was to focus on Meghalaya and the central role it can play in fostering greater connectivity between other Northeastern states and the Bay of Bengal within the broader region of Indo-Pacific.

The meeting began with a welcome address from Nilanjan Ghosh, Director, CNED and ORF, Kolkata, and Project Director USIPS NED. Sampat Kumar, Principal Secretary, Forest and Environment Department, Government of Meghalaya, 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, the entire dialogue was divided into three main segments: three-panel discussions with parallel breakout sessions and a presentation of student audit reports as a part of the youth engagement activity. The dialogue convened a total of 37 participants/stakeholders and some experts from the Northeast. The stakeholders were research scholars or career professionals from diverse sectors such as government agencies, private business houses, civil society, professionals, academia, media, non-government organisations, and local communities. Among the 37 stakeholders, 27 joined in person, and 10 joined virtually. Experts presented their views during panel discussions to set the context for subsequent deliberations among the stakeholders. Apart from participating in the dialogues, stakeholders were also requested to fill out two survey questionnaires—a pre-survey questionnaire, which they filled out before participating in the conference and a post-survey questionnaire, which they filled out after the conference. This was done to measure if and how the experience of the dialogue had impacted or modified their opinions.

The discussions helped to view it as a two-way interaction to produce tailor-made solutions to tap the region’s ecological, economic, geographic and strategic resources. It holds a special significance because it builds a nexus between collaborative efforts and responsibilities that can foster a swift response for the overall development of the region, vis-à-vis the region’s location in the broader Indo-Pacific region through its proximity to the Bay of Bengal.

The panellists in the first-panel discussion explored the key issues around fostering better business-enabling environment, improving Meghalaya’s surface connectivity and linkage to the Bay of Bengal for boosting commercial opportunities and the role digital connectivity plays in the state, especially in the context of the post-pandemic world. The Northeastern connective routes have ancient imprints, whether taken as a path to spread the principles of Buddhism or the spice routes through which indigenous civilisations grew, the question of connectivity has always been perennial. The importance of creating a holistic regional approach through multilateral projects with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand was stressed in the discussions around trade. Meghalaya’s proximity to the Bay of Bengal becomes critical in the context of Bangladesh’s political turmoil.

Meghalaya, with its hilly landscape, particularly has infrastructural challenges—be it roads, electricity, or digital infrastructure. The discussions on trade, connectivity, and infrastructure aimed to review the cavities in the existing transportation links and chart ways in which these can be improved through feasible cooperation with the US. It was highlighted that enhanced connectivity in India’s Northeast is vital for its development, but the security-development conundrum hinders its overall progress. North-East contributes 2.8 percent to India’s GDP. Therefore, the question of weaving Meghalaya into the trade network does bring out the gaps in connectivity infrastructure, low levels of transnational trade due to its difficult terrain, recurring political violence and ethnic conflicts, which prevent the region’s optimal utilisation. The youth’s aspirations are anchored to increasing internet penetration via strengthening digital connectivity, with special emphasis being laid on vocational training based on digital skill sets.

Panellists highlighted that India-US collaboration in trade and infrastructure building can play a significant role in the creation of dedicated economic corridors with zero tariff rates and lowering of non-tariff barriers around the major cities of India’s Northeastern states, which enhances its linkage to the Bay of Bengal. The significant role of ‘border haats’, as a unique cross-border economic activity through which local people buy and sell agricultural produce across the border, was highlighted. Recommendations revolved around strengthening the Indian government’s support for creating resilient supply chain infrastructure, like the creation of land ports and sister-city connectivity projects between neighbouring countries based on active community engagement. A sustainable business environment is contingent on a stable political atmosphere where people can take advantage of physical and digital connectivity irrespective of regime changes that function on mutual people-to-people trust. Connectivity should not be limited to merely physical infrastructure but also include facets of digital, environmental, ecological and cultural domains.

The second-panel discussion was on climate change and creating resilient pathways to attain the twin goals of climate mitigation and climate adaptation. Climate change should be viewed not as an ecological but as a developmental problem that can be tackled through an integrated framework based on the knowledge of the indigenous communities. The Northeast has a unique geography and a rich biodiversity, making it extremely vulnerable to climate change. Climate concerns and connectivity are inextricably linked, but in contemporary times, community lifestyle and climate change are at loggerheads. Policymaking revolving around community and environment should be merged in a way that sends a universal message that humans and nature should exist together. In this context, the issues of climate change-induced migration, rising sea levels, receding coastlines, and flash floods are some of the disastrous consequences hampering the region’s daily life. The panellists reiterated that there should be a re-emphasis on the dynamics of climate financing and that climate adaptation should be prioritised through policy frameworks built on the creation of climate-resilient infrastructure through active community participation.

Climate change surpasses geographic boundaries and, hence, should be treated like a global problem. It was brought out that Meghalaya is the only state to bring out the Green Meghalaya Plus Scheme, based on the principle of Payment for Ecosystem (PES), forming a blueprint for global action. This shows that the right incentive creation can foster the dual role of community engagement and conservation of the environment.

The US Indo-Pacific Strategy, released in 2021, showcases the US’s commitment to “India’s continued rise and regional leadership” and compliments New Delhi’s interest in fostering regional growth. India’s Northeast thus becomes a zone of converging policy interests and a natural platform for their collaborative initiatives towards developing a more free, open, connected, and secure Indo-Pacific. The third panel discussion delved into laying a feasible ground for possible India-US developmental cooperation in the Northeast and addressing transnational challenges that affect people regardless of political boundaries. As two like-minded countries and the largest democracies, India and the US have developed niche areas of partnership, including investments in public-private partnership projects and focusing on translating technology advancement into real skill sets through this cooperation. The experts discussed that bilateral collaboration in infrastructure projects around riverine connectivity and digital landscape should be strengthened. US’s role in sharing advance technology and helping India replicate it for Northeast’s development was also highlighted during the student’s audit report session.

The final segment of the dialogue was the presentation of Student Audit Reports, as the key objective of the USIPS NED is to provide a platform for the youth to voice their opinions about the future of the Northeast and the scope for India-US cooperation based on the US-Indo Pacific Strategy. The students gave recommendations on trade connectivity, climate change and harnessing the potential of the Northeast in India-US relations, all with Meghalaya in focus.

The participants appreciated the timeliness and significance of the project in the current geo-strategic landscape and deliberated on how more awareness about the United States Indo-Pacific Strategy in India’s Northeast would lay the ground for increasing India-US collaborations that can bring overall development in this region, which is rightly called as ‘Nation’s Gateway to the East’. The event ended with a summarisation of key suggestions, setting the stage for the second policy dialogue in Assam.


This event has been written by Sohini Bose, Associate Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and Prachi Verma, Intern, Observer Research Foundation.  

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