Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Gulbin Sultana’s commentary ‘Forthcoming Presidential Election in Sri Lanka: What to Expect?’ has been published by the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement, on 19 September 2024. https://niice.org.np/archives/9589
Sri Lanka is all geared up for one of the most crucial Presidential election on 21 September 2024. This will be the first election after the 2022 people’s uprising known as Aragalaya, writes Dr Sultana.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Gulbin Sultana’s article on ‘Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy of the Maldives: Implications for India’ has been published in National Security, Vol. 7 Issue 2 (April-June 2024).
The article argues that India should acknowledge and feel confident about its own strength, and address concerns in the bilateral relations through dialogue and engagement with all the stakeholders in Maldives rather than adopting reactive measures.
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.
Operation Cactus was one of the most important strategic airlifts by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the neighbourhood, which was accomplished despite several issues and challenges. Various lessons were learnt from the experience of Operation Cactus. Some of the issues and challenges were subsequently addressed to improve the capability of India to undertake a joint strategic mission within a short period. However, with India’s everincreasing strategic interests and sphere of influence, the IAF needs to further bolster its strategic airlift capability.
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.
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.
