Panjab University Hosts National Seminar on Mapping India’s Foreign Policy

CHANDIGARH: The National Seminar on ‘Mapping India’s Foreign Policy in the Emerging Geopolitical Dynamics’ started today at the Golden Jubilee Hall, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Former Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, General Ved Prakash Malik, PVSM, AVSM (Retd.), delivered the inaugural address as the Chief Guest. The two-day national seminar is being organised by the Department of Defence and National Security Studies, Panjab University, in collaboration with the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi. The seminar is focused on evaluating India’s foreign policy priorities amid changing global power dynamics, regional realignments, and growing security threats.

General V. P. Malik asserted that sound defence means sound economic and foreign policy. An efficient civil-military fusion is required presently, where India has a regional and global role and should use all possible tools to be autonomous in its foreign policy.

In his keynote address, Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu (Retd.), former Ambassador of India to the United States, said India is an indispensable partner for the US in ensuring growth and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. He noted that bilateral relations are not shaped by leadership styles or momentary instability but by strategic logic and long-term interests. He added that international relations are not collapsing but reconfiguring. India’s growth, he said, is not automatic and requires sustained institutional, manufacturing, and technological capacity building.

Delivering the presidential address, PU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Renu Vig said that in the current dynamic and fluid geopolitical environment, India’s foreign policy is undergoing a significant shift from the ideological moorings of non-alignment to a more pragmatic and interest-driven approach.