Dr Gulbin Sultana is an Associate Fellow with the South Asia Centre in the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. Her areas of research in the institute include Sri Lanka and the Maldives. She has written extensively on the politico-economic and foreign policy developments of these two countries. Additionally, Dr Sultana takes interest in the study of small island states, particularly in the Indian Ocean Region and also issues pertaining to maritime security.
Dr Sultana is the author of the Monograph titled “Assertion of Religion in Sri Lankan Politics: A Critical Analysis”, published in 2025. She is also the co-editor of the book titled “Think 20@G20: Towards a Resilient South Asia”, published by Pentagon Press in 2024.
She has done her MPhil on “India’s Naval Support to Sri Lanka and the Maldives” from the South Asian Studies Division of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was awarded a PhD degree too by the same university. Her doctoral thesis was on “Sri Lanka’s Maritime Security: A Study of Military and Non-military Responses”. Before joining MP-IDSA, she worked with the National Maritime Foundation and the United Service Institution of India in New Delhi.
India’s G20 Presidency, based on the principle of inclusivity, gave special importance to the priorities of the Global South. The Think20 engagement group (T20), the ‘Ideas Bank’ for the G20, played a crucial role in connecting scholars and experts to harness ideas to enrich the G20 agenda and benefit the larger global community. One of the endeavours in this regard was to gather the perspectives of South Asian countries during India’s G20 Presidency, using the collection of speeches and select papers presented during the 14th South Asia Conference organised by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses on 17-18 January 2023. This volume provides various national perspectives on some of the crucial non-traditional issues confronting South Asian countries, including Myanmar, and well-researched ideas to deal with those challenges effectively. It contextualises the role of India as G20 President, and beyond, in addressing some of the pressing regional issues.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Gulbin Sultan participated as a panellist in a Fellows Seminar on Maldives, organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), on 05 August 2024.
The seminar was chaired by Vivek Mishra, and Prof Rasheeda Mohamed Didi of Maldives University was another panellist.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Gulbin Sultana’s commentary titled ‘Spat between India and the Maldives: Way Forward?’, has been published in the Financial Express on 11 January 2024.
At the close of two years, the National Unity Government (NUG) of Sri Lanka has failed to maintain the confidence and trust of the people it enjoyed during the first three months of its tenure. Having said that, political crisis or instability in Sri Lanka remains unlikely. The NUG is likely to complete its full term, but it will not be a cakewalk.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Gulbin Sultana’s chapter, ‘India-Sri Lanka Fishermen Issue: An Indian Perspective’, has been published as part of the book ‘Geopolitics of India-Sri Lanka Relations: The Way Forward, KDU Press: General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Ratmalana, 2023, edited by Asantha Senevirathna.
While the pre-poll environment in Maldives is relatively peaceful, the political fragmentation makes it difficult to project a certain outcome in the upcoming presidential elections.
The ambitious policy measures taken by the Ranil Wickremasinghe government to revive the economy have yielded some positive outcomes though concerns remain over their implementation.