Indian visits

The last days have been filled with pleasant visits to Norway by Indian partners, while Åshild, Jason and Halvard have been visiting in India; all filling these very partnerships with substance.

Last weekend, Mr. Sisodia, the director of the Institute for Defence and Security Analysis (IDSA) in New Delhi, arrived in Oslo. IDSA is a long standing PRIO partner, and both parties are committed to continuing the cooperation. In addition, IDSA is now expanding its collaboration in Norway by signing a MoU with Institutt for Forsvarsstudier (IFS). Last Monday, I attended a seminar at IFS on ‘India’s Strategic Behaviour’, which was both interesting and well attended. I met Mr. Sisodia over dinner on Sunday and at PRIO on Tuesday, and enjoyed the occasion to discuss future plans for our cooperation. The next big event is a seminar on climate change in Delhi, mid-April.

This weekend, the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Prof. D. P. Singh came to Oslo, adding an extra leg to his visit to Copenhagen, where he discussed collaboration in food science. In Oslo, he will discuss plans for collaborating on peace research. BHU hosts the Malaviya Peace Centre, and is set on strengthening its competence in this area. Prof. Singh himself visited Oslo 15 years ago, then as the head of a centre for management of industrial disasters (post-Bhopal), and has used his time (in Kaja’s company) to see what’s new in Oslo – the Nobel Peace Centre and the Opera, among other things. On Monday afternoon, before he departs for India, Prof. Singh, Ingeborg, Jason and I will meet for an informal, but hopefully informative lunch meeting at PRIO.

Our third Indian partner is the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), also a relatively new acquaintance for PRIO.

In sum, we continue to work with IDSA as our core partner, but are expanding with two new institutions. We are well placed to respond to the new interest in working with India, both in Norway (who recently launched its new strategy) and elsewhere.