Neelam Deo

Neelam Deo

Director, Gateway House

Neelam Deo has served as the Indian Ambassador to Denmark and Ivory Coast with concurrent accreditation to Niger, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. She has also served in the Indian embassies in Rome, Bangkok and Washington D.C., where she liaised with the U.S. Congress, the State Department, and the National Security Council on strategic issues. Her last assignment was as Consul General in New York from 2005 to 2008. During the course of her assignments in the Ministry of External Affairs, she held the position of Joint Secretary for the divisions dealing with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Maldives. At different times over the course of her career, she has dealt with Bhutan, South East Asia and the Pacific, as well as countries in West Asia and North Africa. She is an invited speaker on strategic issues and India-U.S. relations at numerous think tanks and universities, in India, Europe and the United States. Apart from her articles and commentaries written exclusively for Gateway House, Neelam occasionally writes for mainstream publications, and is a frequent commentator for television news channels. She has a Master’s degree from the Delhi School of Economics and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Indian Foreign Affairs Journal. She is also a member of the board of Oxfam India and is a trustee of Breakthrough (a human rights organization). She is an independent director on the boards of Mahindra CIE Automotive Limited and Mahindra Defence Systems Limited.
Expertise

Africa, Foreign Policy, India's Bilateral Relations, USA

Last modified: June 15, 2018

Recent projects

Hambantota_Port Courtesy: Wikipedia
31 May 2018 Gateway House

The intensifying backlash against BRI

The high cost and political impact of Chinese-funded infrastructure in countries like Myanmar, Malaysia and Sri Lanka make it imperative for India to work with Japan to provide alternatives, to ensure that the region is neither bankrupted nor militarised by Chinese influence.
15maldives-master675 Courtesy: New York Times
15 February 2018 Gateway House

Maldives: the Quad’s first crisis

The crisis in the Maldives is a case study of Chinese investments undermining democratic institutions in smaller countries. It poses long term threats to India’s economic and political security. And almost overnight, it has turned the Indian Ocean into the Indo-Pacific
aa-Cover-aku7um6k6ta50ut215mv8qrrj6-20180107020128.Medi Courtesy: AP (Courtesy of The Asian Age)
7 January 2018 The Asian Age

The unchanged U.S.-Pakistan dynamic

Logistical support for this mission, movement of heavy equipment, fuel and other supplies, needs connectivity via Pakistan.