On 19-26 November 2005, a four-member IISS team travelled to Pakistan and India to conduct this second series of seminars in the region and to meet with senior government officials in both countries. These seminars were conducted in collaboration with premier security think tanks in Islamabad, Delhi and Chennai.
The second IISS- South Asia seminars on ‘New Security Perspectives’ focused on US security perspectives, terrorism, global nuclear weapons prospects, Iraq and beyond and India-Pakistan peace process dividends. The seminars in Islamabad and Delhi were attended by senior government officials, military officers, academics, policy analysts and journalists.
In Islamabad, the IISS seminar was held in collaboration with the Institute of Regional Studies, headed by IISS Member Maj-Gen (retd) Jamshed Ayaz Khan. This took place just six weeks after the devastating earthquake that struck South Asia. The seminar was inaugurated with a major policy address by the four-star Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), General Ehsan Ul Haq. The keynote addess was given by Dr Inam Ul Haq, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
The IISS team called on Lt-Gen Khalid Kidwai, Director General, Strategic Plans Division, National (Nuclear) Command Authority. In an unprecedented interaction, the Deputy Director General, Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISID), hosted a working lunch for the visiting IISS team.
At the seminar and dinner (hosted by IISS) in Islamabad, the visiting IISS team interacted with, among others, Lt-gen (retd) Talat Masood; Prof Zafar Iqbal Cheema, Dean of Social Sciences and Chairman, Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University; Lt-gen (retd) Asad Durrani, former ISID Chief; and former Foreign Secretaries Najmuddin Sheikh and Tanvir Ahmad Khan.
In New Delhi, the IISS seminar was held in collaboration with the Delhi Policy Group, headed by IISS Council Member Lt-Gen (retd) V R Raghavan. The IISS called on t5he Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee; the National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan; Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House of Parliament, Jaswant Singh; Chief of Army Staff, General J J Singh; Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall S P Tyagi; Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Raman Puri; and secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, Rajiv Sikri.
In an unprecedented meeting, the IISS team also called on Dr A S Pillai, Chief Controller, Defence Research and Development Organisation.
At a dinner hosted by Ambassador K Shankar Bajpai, Chairman of the Delhi Policy Group and former Indian Ambassador to the US and Pakistan, the IISS team interacted with K Subrahmanyam, the doyen of the Indian strategic community and Ambassador Satinder Lambah, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister (for Pakistan). At the seminar and dinner hosted by the IISS, the visiting IISS team met, among others, Ambassador Vijay Nambiar, Deputy National Security Advisor; Narendra Singh Sisodia, Director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses; and Vikram Sood, former Chief of the Cbinet Secretariat’s Research and Analysis Wing.
Two members of the IISS team also travelled to Chennai to make presentations at a seminar organised by the Centre for Security Analyses, headed by Lt-Gen (retd) Raghavan. The proceedings were chaired by Dr Srinivasa, former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
The members of the IISS team visiting Pakistan and India were Dr Patrick Cronin, Director of Studies (team leader); Sir Michael Quinlan, Consulting senior Fellow; Sir Hilary Synnott, Consulting Senior Fellow for South Asia and the Gulf; and Rahul Roy-Chaudhury. The IIISS delegations’ reception in both countries was very warm and the level of meetings exceptionally high and privileged.
