South Asia

Moderated by South Asia Program Director Farwa Aamer, the webinar invited expert perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19 on South Asian economies and how the region can work towards improving its socio-economic conditions in the post-COVID world.

Speakers included EWI President Bruce McConnell; Dr. Jagannath Panda, research fellow at MP-IDSA, New Delhi; Nathan Sivagananathan, co-founder of Hatch and venture partner at Patamar Capital; Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, chairperson at Karandaaz; and Ikram Sehgal, chairman of Pathfinder Group and EWI board member.

Please find full coverage of the webinar here.

China as the first mover in developing military infrastructure on the border with India has long enjoyed an advantage. This is being progressively balanced with development of border infrastructure by India, which means easier and more border patrolling by Indian forces, and thus increased room for frictions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Improving the infrastructure on its own side is not changing the status quo by India as China self-servingly claims.

The 2005 Agreement on the Parameters and Guiding Principles for the settlement of the India-China border speaks of “the principle of mutual and equal security”. Equal security means that India has every right to reduce the long-standing unequal security situation on its Himalayan border. 

Click here to read the full article in The Economic Times.

The dialogue, second in the project series, brought together experts from both the public and private sectors in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to jointly analyze threats to water security in Asia in the face of worsening hydro-meteorological disasters due to climate change. The two-day dialogue consisted of six panel discussions on varied topics related to the politicization of water security, including the economic vulnerabilities of the water crisis and stakeholder engagement, among others. 

Experts 

Vice Admiral KKVPH De Silva
Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy

Dr. Nilanjan Ghosh 
Observer Research Foundation-Kolkata

Mr. Dipak Gyawali
Former Minister of Water Resources of Nepal

Mr. Ikram Sehgal
Pathfinder Group Pakistan

Dr. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay
Observer Research Foundation

Dr. Khondaker Azharul Haq
Global Water Partnership South Asia

Mr. Ibrahim Zuhuree
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Maldives

Mr. Ahmad Rafay Alam
Punjab Environment Protection Council; Pakistan Climate Change Council

Dr. Damodar Pokharel
Nepal Centre for Disaster Management

Mr. Shafqat Munir
Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies

Dr. Uttam Sinha
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

Dr. Suba Chandran Durai
National Institute of Advanced Studies

Ms. Dharisha Mirando
China Water Risk

Ms. Ailiya Naqvi
Center for Strategic and Contemporary Research

Ms. Joyeeta Bhattacharjee
Observer Research Foundation – New Delhi

Ms. Ruwanthi Jayasekara
Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka

Mr. Nisar A. Memon
Water Environment Forum, Pakistan

Mr. Kumar Pandey
Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal

Ms. Mallika Joseph
Chanakya Chakra

Moderators

Rear Admiral (RNR) D C Gunawardena
Sri Lankan Navy

Dr. Christian Hübner
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung RECAP

Mr. Nishchal Pandey
Centre for South Asian Studies

Dr. Walter Ladwig
EastWest Institute

Acknowledgements

This roundtable dialogue on “Water Security and Disaster Management in Asia” was made possible through the partnership and generous support of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung|RECAP, Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) and Consortium of South Asian Think Tanks (COSATT).

A year after the crisis between India and Pakistan last February, the two nations continue to vie to set the conflict’s narrative, and many of the lessons that the next-door rivals took away from the episode remain unclear. Despite this, the crisis cemented a shift in New Delhi’s response to military provocations, a shift that began in the wake of the 2016 Uri attack and has seen India open up the conventional space for further probing.

After his election in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an effort to reach out to Pakistan—he invited Pakistan’s leader Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony, made an an impromptu trip to Lahore, and even offered a joint investigation into the 2016 Pathankot attack. However, the 2016 Uri attack served as the final nail in the coffin for this soft approach. Instead, the Modi government responded to the Uri attack with a tactical operation along the Line of Control (LoC) and publicly acknowledged them as “surgical strikes.” This response marked a shift towards a sustained hard policy that involved integrating military force into policy vis-à-vis Pakistan for retaliatory action. The Indian response in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack was an extension of the response to the Uri attack, which have together cemented an Indian response template for major provocations. Following the Balakot airstrikes, both the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) are looking to plug the capability gaps highlighted during the crisis. The trajectory of the Pulwama/Balakot crisis further suggests that the prospects for vertical escalation are more likely in a future crisis and that each side views conventional deterrence as pivotal to crisis stability.

Click here to read the full article on South Asian Voices.

The dialogue, second in the project series, brought together experts from both the public and private sectors in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to jointly analyze the threats to water security in Asia in the face of worsening hydro-meteorological disasters due to climate change. The two-day dialogue consisted of six panel discussions on varied topics related to the politicization of water security including the economic vulnerabilities of the water crisis and stakeholder engagement, among others. Each panel featured experts from all participating countries who contributed valuable insights to the overall discussion. Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy Vice Admiral KKVPH De Silva served as the keynote speaker.

The experts unanimously agreed that water issues are inherently multifaceted and as a result, have become a necessary component of seemingly unrelated policy and political issues. They added that management of water resources is obscured by non-inclusive and bureaucratic decision-making.

Experts further emphasized the need for broader research on the new hydrology of the region in light of the evolving climate conditions. There was collective support towards establishing a multi-stakeholder advisory body that would oversee the collection of data and information to garner greater debate and policy recommendations on an effective and non-partisan basis. The experts called for China, Afghanistan and Myanmar to be invited as observer participants in all future Himalayan hydrodiplomacy-focused dialogues.

EWI, with the support of its partners, will continue to draw attention to the rapidly rising challenges of water security at both regional and international policymaking levels.

A detailed summary of outcomes from the discussion, featuring policy recommendations and key takeaways, will be available on the EWI website in the coming weeks.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit has got off to a better start than one could have expected. His Sabarmati Ashram visit along with his wife with hands at Mahatma Gandhi’s spinning wheel sent a subtle message, given Gandhiji’s simplicity and Trump’s ostentation, Gandhiji’s abhorrence of violence contrasted with a President who boasts of having spent $2.5 trillion on rebuilding the U.S. military.

The visit was image-burnishing for the moment as it made him look less vain.

Trump’s speech at the Motera stadium surpassed expectations in many ways. Speeches on such occasions are audience-oriented, but constructing the right message and giving it substance beyond the usual pleasant rhetoric requires savviness.

Click here to read the full article on DailyO.in (originally published in Mail Today).