The Centre for Social and Economic Progress is delighted to invite you to a seminar titled “Why Afghanistan & Pakistan Matter” featuring a discussion among three panellists, Amb. Vivek Katju, former Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and India’s former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Thailand; Amb. Rakesh Sood, Distinguished Fellow, Council for Strategic and Defence Research and India’s former Ambassador to France, Nepal and Afghanistan; and Amb. Dr Jaimini Bhagwati, Distinguished Fellow CSEP and former High Commissioner of India to the UK and Ambassador to the European Union.

The Seminar will be held on Wednesday, October 23, 2024 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm (IST) at the CSEP Auditorium, 6, Dr Jose P Rizal Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021.

Please note that this is an in-person event only. If you are in Delhi on the day, please join us for the seminar. The event will be available on the CSEP website and YouTube channel upon completion.

Abstract

Afghanistan is back under Taliban rule and governance in Pakistan continues to be heavily influenced by its armed forces. Extremist elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan acting singly or in collusion could be a significant security threat for India and central Asian countries. Ambassadors Vivek Katju and Rakesh Sood have spent years in these two countries as Government of India’s representatives and also headed the relevant desks in the Ministry of External Affairs. The two Ambassadors will discuss the current and future prospects for peace and progress in these two countries or whether they will serve as centres for exporting terrorism and worse to adjoining regions including India.

Panellists

• Amb. Vivek Katju is a former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan. An Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1975 batch, he served as India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Thailand. His last assignment was as Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs. Ambassador Katju also headed the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk at the Ministry of External Affairs.
• Amb. Rakesh Sood joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976, first serving in Brussels, Dakar, Geneva, and Islamabad in different capacities, and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, D.C. At the Ministry, he set up the Disarmament and International Security Affairs Division in the Foreign Ministry and led it for nine years. During this period, Ambassador Sood was in charge for multilateral disarmament negotiations, bilateral dialogues with Pakistan, strategic dialogues with other countries including US, UK, France and Israel (especially after the nuclear tests in 1998), non-proliferation related export controls and dealt with India’s role in the ASEAN Regional Forum, as part of the ‘look East’ policy.He has served as India’s first Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and later as Ambassador to Afghanistan, Nepal and France. After retiring in 2013, Ambassador Sood was appointed Special Envoy of the Prime Minister for Disarmament and Non-proliferation, a position he held until May 2014. Since leaving government, Ambassador Sood has been writing and speaking on foreign policy, regional and global security related issues at home and abroad. He is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Council for Strategic and Defence Research, a Delhi based think-tank. A selection of his writings and interviews may be seen at https://rakeshsood.in/.
• Amb. Jaimini Bhagwati is a former Indian Foreign Service officer and a financial sector & derivatives specialist. He was appointed India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 2011. Immediately prior to this appointment, Bhagwati was India’s Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Earlier, he was an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and prior to that, Joint Secretary (Capital Markets and Pension Reforms) in the Ministry of Finance and he served in the Department of Atomic Energy in the mid-1980s. He was employed for eleven years in the World Bank Treasury in Washington DC in two phases between 1991 and 2005 and his responsibilities included issuance of World Bank bonds and pricing of associated derivatives transactions. After retiring from Government of India, he was the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor at ICRIER from 2014 until 2018 and currently he is a Distinguished Fellow at CSEP.He has a Master’s in Physics from St Stephen’s college in Delhi, Master’s in Finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and PhD from Tufts University. He has written a number of Working Papers in the World Bank, ICRIER and CSEP.In 2019, he authored The Promise of India: How Prime Ministers Nehru to Modi Shaped the Nation (1947–2019) which was published by Penguin.He has also written columns in several newspapers.

  As of September 2024, he was an independent Board Member of Apollo Tyres Ltd. and the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) Limited.