CURTAIN RAISER

The 2024 edition of the annual apex-level international conference of the Indian Navy – the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD) – will be held in New Delhi on 03, 04 and 05 October 2024. It follows the recently concluded Goa Maritime Symposium 2024, which was conducted by the Indian Navy on 24 and 25 September 2024 at the Naval War College in Goa. (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2058348).

In terms of conceptual positioning, while the Goa Maritime Symposium seeks to project the Indian Navy’s cooperative engagement at the operational level, by providing a forum for discussion among the navies and maritime agencies in the Indian Ocean Region, the IPRD is the principal manifestation of the Indian Navy’s international engagement at the strategic-level and addresses ‘holistic’ maritime security issues across the Indo-Pacific. The National Maritime Foundation (NMF) is the Indian Navy’s knowledge partner and chief organiser of each edition of the IPRD.

The first two editions of the IPRD were held in 2018 and 2019, respectively, in New Delhi. While IPRD 2020 was not conducted due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the third edition of IPRD was held in 2021 in virtual mode. Since 2022, successive editions of the IPRD have been conducted in the physical format and are specifically focused upon the deeply interconnected web of seven spokes (or pillars) of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI). Each edition of the IPRD seeks to sequentially discuss threadbare the seven constituent lines-of-thrust identified by the IPOI, so as to provide “second-order-specificity” to SAGAR. Accordingly, the theme of IPRD-2022 was “Operationalising the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative”, while the 2023 edition discussed “Geopolitical Impacts Upon Indo-Pacific Maritime Trade and Connectivity”.

In focusing upon “Resource-Geopolitics and Security in the Indo-Pacific”, the 2024 edition of the IPRD (IPRD-2024) would explore and elaborate upon the several dimensions of two vital pillars of the IPOI Web, namely, “Marine Resources” and “Resource Sharing”. This year’s conference would concentrate upon the manner in which traditional and newly identified marine resources are driving contemporary geopolitics and are likely to do so in the foreseeable future. These include dwindling fish-stocks – with a concomitant increase in Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, especially in oceanic areas beyond national jurisdiction. Another manifestation of resource-geopolitics is the geopolitical race for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other hard-to-find minerals, as also rare earth elements (REE) such as tellurium and neodymium that are needed for the millions of batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and other such renewable-energy devices required to successfully transition from fossil-fuels to renewable sources of energy. In addition, offshore energy resources such as hydrocarbons, are likely to retain their geopolitical significance, even as more unconventional ones, such gas hydrates and oceanic renewable energy resources – ocean-sourced hydrogen for example, appear likely to drive future geoeconomic strategies across the Indo-Pacific.

The IPRD-2024, through the agency of a series of globally renowned subject-matter experts and eminent speakers, will endeavour to identify mega trends of resource-geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific and posit policy-options that could be pursued to advantage. Over a period of three days, it would also explore whether and how cooperation, collaboration, and comity might offer alternative pathways within the paradigm of resource-geopolitics. A particular highlight of this mega conference will be the Commemorative Address by the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri of India, Shri Rajnath Singh. IPRD-2024 will also incorporate a series of “Special Addresses” by particularly distinguished speakers, over and above a veritable galaxy of luminaries drawn from over 20 countries, who are expected to offer a series of fascinating regional perspectives on the theme of the conference. The proactive participation of our vibrant student community, research scholars, eminent citizens, academics and practitioners, members of the diplomatic corps, and think-tanks from India and abroad will inject special effervescence to this event.