Scientific seminar “Geopolitical Shifts in Eurasia and its Impact on Russia-India Relations”

On 19 May 2022 Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics held the first event of the “Week of India at HSE” – the scientific seminar “Geopolitical shifts in Eurasia and its impact on Russia-India relations.” Nandan Unnikrishnan, a leading Indian expert, Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) was a keynote speaker at the seminar.

While speaking on the topic, Nandan Unnikrishnan discussed the importance of the Eurasian vast geographic space for India in its national economic development as well as geopolitics. He placed this within the context of ongoing geopolitical churn in the region, with India’s vision being dominated by the presence and rise of China. He highlighted the impact of ongoing Sino-Indian border dispute and Chinese efforts to spread its regional influence in making it the most consequential security challenge for New Delhi. In addition, India faces key issues of economic development, poverty, illiteracy and climate change. Mr. Unnikrishnan argued that India needs enormous investments to achieve its potential of being a key global actor. However, Eurasia is currently focused almost entirely on geopolitics and not geo-economics, which creates difficult conditions for the future. Also, if India wants to be a great power, it needs to engage with all other great powers. In this context, relations with Russia become particularly important with the aim of avoiding the emergence of bipolarity. But there are multiple pressures on this bilateral relationship, which will require creative thinking from both sides.

The video recording of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndT2qmAvNic