The Kalinga International Foundation (KIF) is organising its second major international conference here from 16-18, March 2018, announced Chairman, Kalinga International Foundation, former Ambassador Lalit Mansingh.

Mr Mansingh, former chief secretary D P Bagchi, Ambassador Abasara Beuria, Trustee, KIF and Ms. Shreerupa Mitra, Trustee, KIF were also present at the pre event media conference here on Tuesday.

Kalinga International Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to develop new and robust partnerships between India and the countries of the region.

The conference theme is Purbasa: East meets East: Synergising the North-East and Eastern India with Indo-Pacific. This conference brings together, for the first time, the eastern and northeastern region of India with their proximate neighbours- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and beyond, with the ASEAN nations and the wider Indo-Pacific region.

The states located in India’s north-east-Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and in the east- Bihar, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and in the east- Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar in the south-east, have strong common ties of history, culture, language and customs and traditions from early times.

The Conference will feature an Inaugural Panel with Welcome Remarks by Chairman KIF Amb Lalit Mansingh; Address by Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of the North-East and Eastern region.

The Kalinga Saraswati Samman will be conferred on to noted scholars on this occasion: Prof V Suryanarayan for his book on Indonesia; and to Mr Sudip Sen for his book on Bali. The conference is organised around eight sessions.

Foreign dignitaries like Gamini Jayawicrama Perera, Minister of Buddha Sasana, Sri Lanka; and AKM Shahjahan Kamal, Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Bangladesh, Prof Ajarn Sulak Sivar-akasha, Thailand, Dr Rizal Abdul Kadir, Deputy Director, Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA); Amb Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka; U Khin Maung, Myanmar; and Dr Rajan Bhattarai, Nepal.

A major highlight of the conference would be the Session on Bilaterals with speeches by Ambassadors respectively of Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Myanmar; the Dy High Commissioner of Australia and Minister Economic of the Embassy of Japan.

On the Indian side, Amb Pinak Chakravarty Prof V Suryanarayana and Amb Deepa G Wadhwa would respond to their remarks.