A conference in Doha on ‘Enriching the Middle East’s Economic Future’ offered many insights into the nature of geopolitical relations in the region and India’s significant role in it

India must deepen its involvement with countries of the Indian Ocean Region on issues of security, commerce, and connectivity: this was the upshot of the second Indian Ocean Conference, held by the India Foundation in Colombo two weeks ago

A conference of the BRICS 2017 Think Tank Forum, held in Beijing recently, showed that the grouping had progressed in influencing global governance despite some persistent intra-member differences

Speakers at the ‘1st BRICS Think Tank Forum on Pragmatic Cooperation’, held in Shanghai last month, discussed ways to tackle new challenges as globalisation moves into the next phase where the BRICS countries will take the lead

An annual important networking occasion for security experts, the GLOBSEC 2017 Bratislava Forum, had surprisingly little representation from major European countries, such as Germany and France. Russia’s misuse of cyberspace was loudly censured, but Chinese activity in the South China Sea, and the recently concluded Belt and Road Forum received little attention

Gateway House hosted a T20 meeting in Mumbai on February 14, 2017 in collaboration with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, with support from GIZ and Siemens India. This was the third time Gateway House hosted a T20 meeting; previous editions were held in 2015 under the Turkish Presidency with the leading Turkish think tank TEPAV, and in 2016 under the Chinese Presidency with the leading Chinese think tanks — Institute for World Economics and Politics, Shanghai Institute for International Studies, and Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies.

The Forum 2000 conference in Prague last week was an occasion to reflect on the challenges facing democracy in an economically globalised, but socially fragmented, West.

OPEC’s announcement of a cut in oil production shows that Saudi Arabia is being affected by low oil prices even as Iran gains ground

The 11th India Trilateral Forum, a meeting series between India, Europe and the U.S., reflects a more confident India from whom expectations – especially to counter China – are high. This will require a realistic re-labelling of India by the Western powers.

In the last few years, India has stepped up its engagement with the countries of the Indian Ocean. At the first Indian Ocean Conference held last week, a consensus emerged that New Delhi needed to redouble their efforts to foster political, security, economic, and cultural cooperation in the region.