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Mr. Sunil KC


 

Closing Remarks by AIDIA Founder, Mr. Sunil KC at   EU-SAARC Think Tank Summit “Advancing EU-SAARC Cooperation” January 20-21, 2021

 

Namaste and Good Afternoon! !

First I would like to thank, our partner institute South Asia Democratic Forum ((SADF) for this great partnership for successfully hosting this summit. Especially, I would like to that Mr. Paulo Casaca , Executive Director of SADF for accepting our proposal to jointly host this summit, which I believe added the greater value to our ongoing partnership.

 

Similarly, I also like to thank, Dr. Siegfried Wolf for his great collaboration and expert guidance. And, at our end, I would like to thank Mr Shyam KC for conceptualizing the thematic sessions and working hardly to bring distinguished experts together in this summit.

 

Most importantly, I extend my sincere thanks to all the distinguished speakers for your valuable insights and experiences at this two-day EU-SAARC Think Tank Summit. And, contributing in.

 

Under the theme of “Advancing EU-SAARC Cooperation” we aimed at promoting constructive institutional collaboration; advancing inter-regional economic cooperation; understanding regional strategies of the EU in South Asia; analyzing the underlying challenges of regional integration; examining the role of EU in promoting development and democracy in South Asia; and building cooperation to combat with common non-traditional security challenges.

 

We believe your critical and expert views on those areas have immensely contributing to accomplish aims of the summit.

 

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Her Excellency Nona Deprez, Ambassador of the European Union to Nepal, and His Excellency Ugo Astuto, Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan for their gracious presence. Along with long term policy impact, we always try to ensure and create the immediate and important links between policy scholars and implementing agencies. We feel that their presence contributed achieving this goal. 

 

We would also like to thank prominent think-tanks and universities from both the regions. Which includes; University of Catania from Italy, Finish Institute of International Affairs, Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy, Centre for International Relations and the University of Warsaw from Poland, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Centre for European Policy Studies from Belgium Policy Research Institute from Nepal, Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, King’s College of London. 

 

Similarly from India, Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, Vivekananda International Foundation, Asian Confluence, University of Delhi, Centre for Social and Economic Progress and Gateway House.

 

I think that the participations of around twenty-five institutions in the same platform for sharing their perspectives and frank exchanges of the ideas on mutual issues and opportunities, is truly extraordinary. 

 

I believe this wider participation itself supported in promoting networks and collaboration between think-tanks from the two regions, which is one of the aims of this summit.

 

Let us work together to promote our constructive engagements and innovative partnerships to advance the inter-regional cooperation.

 

We hope to increase the participation and explore new dimensions of EU-South Asia Relations, in our second edition of summit in 2022.

 

Thank You!

 


 

 


 

AIDIA Founder, Mr. Sunil KC at   the 14th South Asian Conference on Think20 G20 India: Towards A Resilient South Asia

 

 

Thank you Chair.

Good Afternoon to everybody.

 

At the outset, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to MP-IDSA for extending an invitation. My compliments and congratulation to Ambassador Sujan R Chinoy, DG, MP-IDSA, for hosting such an important event while the region has been witnessing challenges from multiple dimensions.

I am very much delighted to be here and share my thoughts before an informed audience of the 14th South Asia Conference, the flagship event of the Government of India to promote regionalism hosted by Manohar Parikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis.

Yesterday we saw, all the sessions and speakers talked about Regional Integration Amb Rajiv Bhatia observed that the South Asia region is moderately integrated. Amb Harsh Shrigla found that we (the region) are 10 years behind in the regional integration programme.

Priorities of the G-20 and South Asia region are well articulated in the two days of deliberations.

Priorities, South Asia region is vulnerable to several issues:

• Climate change

• Energy crisis

• Poor economic and social infrastructure

• Cross-border terrorism

However, I found one issue that has been missing in the debate. That is:

Why is the regional integration imperative?

Because the member countries face common challenges like the effects of Climate Change, Pandemics, energy dependency, economic, crisis, etc. In that case no country, how big that could be, address these challenges without the support and cooperation from other countries. And, most importantly, many of these issues have cross-border implications.

BBIN – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, a sub-region of SAARC and BIMSTEC regions, now all three nations of this sub-region except Bhutan are facing energy crisis. The crisis will undoubtedly deepen if the generation of green energy today fails to manage power generation, transmission and distribution – both for industrial and domestic use. We all know that hydro-power is the best source of energy, followed by solar power than any other fossil based energy from both – cost effectiveness and environmental safety, adding one more jingle – ”Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya”.

Therefore, Green Energy would play a key role in establishing a resilient south Asia.

When to go for regional integration?  (the region needs immediate action for regional integration because of pressing issues as discussed earlier)

How to go for the regional integration and who will take the initiatives? 

To go for a robust regional integration the region first needs a forum. There are successful examples like the EU and the ASEAN. Interestingly, currently, in South Asia, the regional forums are doing well. For example, the SAARC is defunct, the BBIN is stuck, and the BIMSTEC is not progressing as expected.

In this scenario, how would we achieve regional integration? Can bilateralism become a way forward to regionalism? Or do we need another new forum for this?

--

Therefore, we should focus on some low-hanging fruits as a confidence-building measure.

1.     BBIN-sub-regional energy integration by having new transmission lines between India and Bangladesh for facilitating energy trade between Nepal-India-Bangladesh and Bhutan.

In August 2022, both Nepal and Bangladesh have requested India to facilitate Nepal-Bangladesh energy cooperation by allowing Nepal to export 50 MW of electricity to Bangladesh by using existing transmission lines between India and Bangladesh.

Following are the current India – Bangladesh transmison lines:

·        Baharampur (India) – Bheramara (Bangladesh) 400kV D/C lines along with 2x500 MW HVDC back-to-back terminal at Bheramara

·        Surajmaninagar (Tripura) in India to Comilla in Bangladesh 400kV (operated at 132kV)

·        Katihar (India)-Parbotipur (Bangladesh) and Bornagar (India) 765kV Double Circuit (Proposed)

It is a low-hanging fruits, because

a.     the energy trade is already happening bilaterally in the region

b.     Nepal needs to sell surplus energy to new markets like Bangladesh, Myanmar, and possibly to Sri Lanka by 2030

c.      Bangladesh needs energy for its industries

·        Both India and Bangladesh want to increase the share of renewable energy substantially in the upcoming years. The Indian government has set an ambitious plan to generate 500GW from non-fossil energy-based sources by 2030, meeting 50 percent of energy requirements from renewables.

·        Likewise, Bangladesh wants to increase the share of renewable energy in the country's power mix to around 40 percent by 2050 from less than three percent now. Water-rich Nepal could help both countries achieve their dreams, according to officials.

·        Bangladesh has hence been exploring Nepal’s hydropower to meet its renewable energy targets.

d.     India can earn foreign currency by facilitating this trade

e.      This will be a major diplomatic victory for India

f.       Like the other tradeable items, standardization is not required in the case of hydropower energy

g.     This will attract more investments into the region in the green energy sector

2.     Take prompt action to remove non-tariff barriers in the bilateral trade, as suggested by Amb Harsh Shringla yesterday. 

3.     There is already a robust trade infrastructure in the region for bilateral trade and regional trade. Adoption of the Motor vehicle Agreement under the BBIN framework would improve cross-border trade substantially.

Last but not the least, India needs to send a message to its regional partners/neighbours that it is keen on multilateralism or regionalism by bringing changes in existing Hydro-energy export/import guidelines that were issued in 2018 and 2021, which encourage bilateral energy trade.