Bengaluru: On 09 June, the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru in collaboration with the partner institutions of the International Studies Network Bangalore (ISNB) organized an interactive discussion with Honorable External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. The programme was held at the JRD auditorium, NIAS, and was attended by students, research scholars, faculties, and representatives of the partner institutions. Representatives from the French and Japanese consulates in Bengaluru attended the session as well.
Before the commencement of the programme, the minister conversed with the representatives of the partner institutions under the ISNB initiative. Representatives from Kristu Jayanti College were the Principal Fr Dr Augustine George and Ramya, Head of the Department of History, Dr Ravindran and 48 students.
The programme started at 19:00 h, the Director of NIAS Prof Shailesh Nayak welcomed the minister and the attendees by appreciating the efforts of the partner institutions to act as a catalyst in forming the international studies network. He further expressed gratitude to the minister for visiting NIAS again after five years and appreciated Ambassador P.S. Raghavan for his constant support of the institute. Furthermore, Amb Raghavan introduced the theme for the discussion “Eight Years of National Security” and emphasized how much of India’s foreign policy is devoted to defence and national security. Prof Shailesh then briefly introduced the minister’s long successful career in diplomacy to welcome him for his keynote speech.
Dr Jaishankar in his keynote speech emphasized national security as a foundation for any development in the state and called the audience to contemplate the four challenges India faced over the past two years. That is the pandemic, Northern border disputes, and the repercussions of the crisis in Afghanistan and Ukraine. The minister also acknowledged the role of Bengaluru as a stakeholder to democratize foreign policy in the country. He concluded his address by signifying the role of the prime minister’s leadership in building national security and called on us to consider politics in international relations.
The interaction session commenced after the minister’s speech which was moderated by Amb Raghavan. The session had two rounds, in the first round the faculties of the partner institutions were to ask their questions to the minister for his response, and in the second round research scholars from various institutes were to follow the same. The minister responded to the questions on the role of higher education in foreign policy, energy security and various other issues brought up by the participants. After an hour of meaningful and intelligent interaction with the minister, the programme was concluded by Prof Shailesh handing Dr Jaishankar a memento of NIAS and a vote of thanks to everyone.
