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With Narendra Modi pursuing a very active Indian Ocean region diplomacy, Maldives cannot be kept away from his outreach programme. Maldives is key to our strategic interests in the Indian Ocean and any instability or discord in its internal affairs would have a bearing on our security.

Delivering the 30th Bhimsen Sachar Memorial Lecture for 2009 in New Delhi, the former Chief of the Army Staff highlights the flaws in India's strategic thinking and stresses the need for a more focused and clearly defined vision for the future.

Vietnam has its own difficult history with China. It is not surprising, then, that this emerging country is often seen as a linchpin in India's counter-encirclement and "Look East" policies.

With the objective of discussing India's strategy for oil and gas sector development, ORF, the International Energy Agency and the Korea Energy Economics organised a roundtable on "An Overview on India's Oil and Gas Upstream Sectors and Its Overseas Investment".

India has to deftly navigate the TPP waters by making sure it does not isolate itself by staying out of the picture for too long. At the same time, actively committing to the TPP will be hard. India should pursue an incremental process, where it initially joins the discussions and then determines how well it is placed to enter as a member. India could bring much needed flexibility to the TPP and use it to boost its own ties with United States.

India's exports would go down if economic sanctions are imposed on Sri Lanka as sought by some people in Tamil Nadu, affecting farmers, manufacturers and suppliers in the State, says former President of the India-ASEAN-Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce.

While viewing China through the prism of economic rivalry is unhelpful, so is judging it based on relations with neighbouring countries. Doing so is distracting, and makes India look insecure, with a developing country mind-set rather than that of aspiring superpower.

Earlier this month, the RIC forum meeting in Beijing supported India's aspirations to play a greater role in the UN. Recently, the Chinese spokesperson Hua Chunying too made some small change in its stance on UNSC expansion and India's aspirations. But still, it is not clear whether it is a distinct shift in China's policy.

Despite the worldwide call for a change in water management paradigm in favour of demand management and ecosystem restoration (also known as Integrated Water Resource Management), India still adheres to its archaic notions of water resource development.

India and China will need each other's markets and labour in the future. With rising wages, India can become an important outsourcing partner for China and more Indian finished goods can be sent to China. It could mean faster poverty reduction in India if growth with equity is the chosen path.

Senior journalists from India and China discussed various important issues affecting the India-China relations and the role of media in both the countries in giving a right perspective to issues and help improve relations further. The platform was the India-China Media Exchange, organised by ORF in Delhi in association with the Global Times Foundation.

China is now India's single largest trading partner and a big growing export market for Indian goods

India and China should begin a full-fledged dialogue on water resources in order to address the suspicion that China is diverting river water away from India, according to former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.

Notwithstanding the friendly rhetoric and promises of Chinese investment, India and China still have big problems between them. The biggest, as Narendra Modi's remarks at the press interaction noted, is the border.

After over a decade of declared intentions, India has finally decided to put money on the strategically important Chabahar project. It's a sad story of how bold intentions of leaders were stalled by the different perspectives in different ministries of the Government itself.

Dr P R Kumaraswamy, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, initiated a discussion on ¿India, Iran and the US: The Problematic Triangle¿ at the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation on 22 December 2007.

India can leverage its traditional closeness to the Palestinians as well as its current friendly ties with Israel to help advance the peace process, even if in a small way. But this requires care and finesse, which is unlikely to be found in the parliamentary din.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's forthcoming visit to Japan for the annual summit comes at a time when both countries are faced with serious territorial frictions with China. Mr Singh and his Japanese counterpart Mr. Shinzo Abe will review China's assertive maritime postures and other major developments in East Asia.

Both Tokyo and New Delhi want to create a stabler Asian order by redefining partnerships in the region. Can India and Japan take the lead in this regard and form a concert of nations that would bring about balance of power in the Asia-Pacific?

India, Japan and the United States are planning to conduct their first trilateral meeting in New Delhi later this year to discuss issues of strategic interests, according to Japan's Ambassador to India, Mr. Akitaka Saiki.

While the bilateral relation between India and Kazakhstan has strengthened in the past few years, accessibility remains a major obstacle to our economic cooperation. Given the present problems, India, in the immediate future, needs to focus on the Iranian route and the North-South Corridor.

India and Pakistan need to begin a dialogue on economic and military relations. It will be a challenge for both countries to balance the provision of security for its populations with the need to create the enabling environment for economic and social development and growth.

The Modi government came to power in New Delhi pledging a muscular approach to relations with Islamabad. But now, the government has realised that while it can control the narrative at home, it cannot do so abroad. Most countries saw New Delhi's actions as somewhat over the top.

If Putin and Manmohan Singh want to capture some of the magic of the past, it is imperative to look beyond government-to-government ties and engage the private sector as well as civil society. The India-Russia relationship is not only about defence or nuclear issues but about people.

Both India and Russia need to start thinking strategically about the Central Asian region, not letting emotions guide their foreign policy decisions. This was the consensus reached at a conference organised recently in Delhi.

As hard-boiled realists, Modi and Putin must acknowledge the new dynamic around them, find ways to limit its impact on the bilateral relationship and move quickly towards expanding the scope of their commercial ties and revitalising their cooperation in energy, defence and high-technology sectors.

''The Centre will consider the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka and the overall relationship between India and its island-neighbour while formulating its stand on the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC,''.

India and Sri Lanka are now working on a comprehensive economic agreement following the success of the Free Trade Agreement of 1999. This was stated by Sri Lanka's Minister for Export Promotion and International Trade,

Mr. Strobe Talbott, President of Brookings Institution and former US deputy secretary of state, said that the improvement in Indo-US relations is not as real as it should be. Mr. Talbott was delivering a talk at the ORF Mumbai University on February 10, 2005.

Whatever Modi may want to do in the coming years is circumscribed by the fact that India does not have too many cards in its hands. It is not an oil-rich country, or one with some ideology to export. It is a poor country whose primary goal is to transform the lives of its people.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January 2010 and the Joint Communiqué issued jointly by both the countries infused a renewed vigour in the bilateral relationship which, till then, was floundering.

PM Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Kabul and India's initiative to develop long-term strategic partnership will redefine India's relations with Afghanistan by giving it leverage in Kabul that it has not enjoyed in the past.

India-Africa science and technology cooperation offers a unique opportunity for agricultural growth in Africa. The case for greater agricultural cooperation between India and Africa is stronger because of the similar agro-climatic conditions in India and Africa. African agriculture suffers from low productivity and limited use of technology.

At the second Africa-India Forum Summit held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on May 24-25, notable points for cooperation were established with hopes of further strengthening the longstanding relationship between India and African nations.

In an increasingly multi-polar world, Africa is an important partner for India on all global strategic issues. Africa is one of the fastest growing regions with huge natural resources. It offers not only resources to India's increasing needs but also a huge market for Indian firms for trade and investment.

With the upcoming 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III) this month, Prime Minister Modi is set to prove a point to the country that he indeed follows a proactive foreign policy with exuberance and austerity. IAFS-III seems to be critical for reshaping and nourishing historical India-Africa ties and is considered as not just another diplomatic event.

It has been a cliché to refer to India and Africa as natural partners. With the recent India-Africa Summit in Delhi, there is a chance to make it a reality. But for this, concerted action is needed on the parts of the governments, private sectors, civil societies, think tanks, academics and the media on both sides.

With both the goods FTA and services FTA in place, India is well set on the path of a comprehensive economic partnership with ASEAN. India, whose services sector contributes about 55% to the country's GDP, has been keen to sign the services FTA with ASEAN as it will help the Indian companies tap the ASEAN markets easily.

The potential welfare gains arising from the services agreement appear to be in India's favour as well as for member economies of ASEAN. The policy focus of both ASEAN and the individual member nations has been on merchandise trade liberalisation, and on inducing foreign investment-led transfer of technology, which has so far resulted in low regional integration in services.

Amidst the challenges like less liberalised service sector of certain ASEAN members, there exists an opportunity for India to harness the gains from trade in services in the wake of the comparative advantage that it enjoys in certain services.