The annual Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD) will be organised virtually by the Indian Navy and the National Maritime Foundation from Wednesday to discuss in detail the geopolitical developments in the Indo-Pacific.
IPRD-2021 is being held as a three-day online event and will focus on eight specific sub-themes under the broad theme of 'Evolution in Maritime Strategy during the 21st Century: Imperatives, Challenges, and, Way Ahead'.
Panel discussions would be held on eight sub-themes including evolving maritime strategies in the Indo-Pacific, strategies to address the impact of climate change upon maritime security, port-led regional maritime connectivity and development strategies and cooperative maritime domain awareness strategies.
Impact of the increasing recourse to lawfare upon a rules-based Indo-Pacific maritime order, strategies to promote regional public-private maritime partnerships, energy-insecurity and mitigating strategies and strategies to address the manned-unmanned conundrum at sea will also be discussed extensively over the next three days.
The sessions will be preceded by addresses by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri.
First conducted in 2018, the forum is the apex international annual conference of the Indian Navy, and is the principal manifestation of the navy’s engagement at the strategic-level. The National Maritime Foundation is the navy’s knowledge partner and chief organiser of each edition of this annual event. The aim of each successive edition of the IPRD is to review both opportunities and challenges that arise within the Indo-Pacific.
IPRD-2018 focussed on four main sub-themes: maritime trade; regional connectivity; pan-regional challenges such as those of persistent maritime surveillance, the increasing digitisation of the maritime space, and cyber-malevolence within the maritime domain; and, the role of industry in enhancing holistic maritime security.
IPRD 2019 examined five themes: practical solutions for achieving cohesion in the region through maritime connectivity; measures to attain and maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific; examining a regional approach to Blue Economy; opportunities from Maritime-Industry 4.0; and, regional opportunities arising from Sagar and Sagarmala.
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