Gateway House, MEA bring foreign policy debate to Mumbai

In further sign of Mumbai's growing relevance in foreign policy debate, Gateway House also hosts T20, a preparatory meeting for the G20.

Mumbai is due to host a seminal foreign policy event, "The Gateway of India Dialogue: Where geopolitics meets business", on 13-14 June. The event is co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and Gateway House, the foreign policy think tank. The conference will feature a range of prominent foreign policy, trade and security issues.

This is the first time that such a high-level foreign affairs conference is taking place in Mumbai. The city is India's commercial capital and accounts for substantial foreign trade by both value and volume. The Gateway of India Dialogue event will bring together an Indian and international audience consisting of senior union ministers, leading industrialists, foreign ministers from neighbouring countries and policy experts.

The two-day event will be inaugurated by S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary, who will also deliver a keynote address on "Aligning Business and Strategic Goals". Central ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Kiren Rijiju, as well as a broad range of panellists, will be addressing diverse issues such as global capital, the politics of energy, international trade agreements and cybersecurity.

Several senior international ministers are due to participate in the high-level meeting. These include Kamal Thapa, the Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, and Canada's former Minsiter of Citizenship and Immigration Christopher Alexander. Global subject matter experts will drive the panel discussions, including Narendra Karmarkar, the creator of "Karmarkar's algorithm", who will contribute to the cybersecurity panel.

Leading industrialists like Adi Godrej and experts led by Mohandas Pai, Anshu Jain, and Manish Sabharwal will offer the business perspective on the same subjects.

The two-day meeting will conclude with a closing keynote by V K Singh, Honourable State Minister on "India's Global Engagement Strategy: greater energy, growing aspirations."

Further amplifying Mumbai's increasing relevance to the foreign policy debate, the city is also playing host to "T20: Dialogue on Global Economic Governance" on 13 June. The event is the official sub-forum of the G20 process, responsible for contributing ideas and research to the G20 on global economic issues. T20 will be attended by experts in international economics from over 30 leading think tanks from across Southeast and South Asia as well as from G20 countries. T20 and Gateway of India Dialogue delegates will be attending and speaking at each event respectively, adding their expertise to both.

Commenting on these forthcoming events, Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director of Gateway House said: "Geopolitics and international trade are closely linked. Mumbai is already known as India's commercial capital and its business community should have a seat at the table when discussing strategic geopolitical affairs. Gateway House is delighted to offer the platform for this to happen through these events".