INDIA’S APPROACH TO WEST ASIA: Trends, Challenges and Possibilities

Amb. Sujan Chinoy is the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi since 2019. A career diplomat from 1981-2018, he held several important diplomatic assignments, including as Ambassador to Japan and Mexico. A specialist on China, East Asia and politico-security issues, he anchored negotiations and developed confidence-building measures (CBMs) with China on the boundary issue from 1996-2000. On deputation to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) from 2008-2012, his expertise covered external and internal security issues, particularly South Asia and the extended neighbourhood of the Indo-Pacific. Among his diverse foreign postings, he also served as Counsellor (Political) in the Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is the Chair of the Think20 engagement group for India`s G20 Presidency and a Member of the high-powered DRDO Review Committee.

Dr. Prasanta Kumar Pradhan is a Research Fellow and Coordinator of the West Asia Centre at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. He holds a doctorate degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Since joining MP-IDSA in 2008, he has been researching on foreign policy, security and strategic issues in West Asia, and India`s relationship with West Asia and the wider Arab world. Dr. Pradhan is the author of India and the Arab Unrest: Challenges, Dilemmas and Engagements (Routledge, London 2022), Arab Spring and Sectarian Faultlines in West Asia: Bahrain, Yemen and Syria (Pentagon Press, New Delhi, 2017) and the monograph India`s Relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council: Need to Look beyond Business (MP-IDSA, New Delhi, 2014). He is also the editor of the book Geopolitical Shifts in West Asia: Trends and Implications (Pentagon Press, New Delhi, 2016).