ORCA’S CLOSED-DOOR ROUNDTABLE WITH US STATE DEPARTMENT'S LLOD QUAD FELLOWS

The team at Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA) hosted QUAD Fellows of the US State Department's Leaders Lead on Demand (LLOD) program at the American Centre in New Delhi on 14th November 2023. The interactive Q&A-style closed-door roundtable discussion was on the theme ‘Indian Perspectives on the Quad: Lens of the Indian Ocean and SAGAR’.

The roundtable saw meaningful dialogue between the Quad Fellows —Blake Berger, Associate Director, Asia Society Policy Institute, New York (ASPI), Elizabeth Morison, Researcher, The Australia Institute, Ms. Daria Impiombato, Analyst, Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Dr. Saya Kiba, Research Committee Member, Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS), Japan— and experts from India including Capt. S S Parmar, AVM Anil Golani, V Adm. Shekhar Sinha, Dr. Vijay Sakhuja, Dr. Monish Tourangbam, Ms. Tulika Gupta, Cmde. Anil Jai Singh, Dr. (Cdr.) Arnab Das and Capt. Anurag Bisen. Ms. Eerishika Pankaj, Head of Research & Operations Director at Orgniasation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA), and a Quad Fellow moderated the discussion.

The Quad Fellows posed questions to the expert audience to better understand how India approaches the Quad in a unique format that generated robust engagement. This interaction between the Quad Fellows from Australia, the US and Japan and Indian experts helped in enhancing the understanding of the contours and dynamics of the Indian Ocean (IOR) region and enabled the ideation of policies that could benefit the IOR littoral as well as the Quad countries. The talk concluded with a holistic balance of expertise from the field of Indo-Pacific and Quad studies as well as the ideation of new recommendations.