The Vivekananda International Foundation organized a joint webinar with the Japan Institute of National Fundamentals (JINF) on 10 February 2022 on Strategic Outlook for Indo-Pacific in 2022. After initial remarks by Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF and Ms Yoshiko Sakurai, President JINF, presentations were made by Amb Anil Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow VIF and Hiroshi Yuasa, Senior Fellow JINF. The webinar discussed a range of issues from shaping a new regional security architecture to engaging ASEAN and analyzing ramifications of China’s military rise and Ukraine standoff on the region. Some of the salient points made were:

The Quad Plus Dialogue is held every quarter since 2013 and the Vivekananda International Foundation has been the designated think tank representing India since the inception of this dialogue. Apart from VIF, the other think tanks from Quad members include Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Japan; Heritage Foundation, US and Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Australia. Meetings of this Group are organised on a quarterly basis. The latest round of this meeting was organised virtually on 13 October 2021 and was hosted by The Heritage Foundation. In addition to above mentioned partners, Germany joined as “Plus partner" in this editionand was represented by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). Representatives from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) also addressed the Group and discussed NATO’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific broadly, and with the Quad and Quad-related organizations specifically.

India and Iran share close historical and cultural links dating back to ancient times. In contemporary times, this relationship is multi-faceted and includes cooperation in political, trade-economic, security and multiple other sectors. In order to assess the dynamics of India-Iran relations, the

The United Kingdom released its “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” on 16 March 2021. Titled ‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age’, the document stands out for shaping the country’s post-Brexit foreign, defence, security and development priorities and policies. A notable aspect of the review is the UK’s foreign and security policy ‘tilt’ towards the Indo-Pacific region. China, India and Japan are recognised as the three most important powers in this region with widely differing characteristics and relationships with the UK. The UK seeks to “deepen” engagement in the Indo-Pacific with an ambitious goal of being the European partner “with the broadest and most integrated presence” in the region.