Singapore: A number of local institutions
here have come together to promote dialogue between India and
China through scholars, economists and journalists, a media
report said on Saturday.
The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), The
National University of Singapore (NUS), Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Nanyang Technological University have formed
the Singapore Consortium for Indo-China dialogue.
"Since academic institutions here have been showing
very active interest in the topic, we felt it was time to
bring them all together," Director of Humanities and Social
Sciences Research at NUS and a representative of the
consortium, Professor Prasentjit Duara, was quoted as saying
by The Straits Times.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirapuma Rao had addressed
the consortium`s inaugural lecture on Thursday, speaking on
Rabindranath Tagore`s vision of India and China.
Director of the Nalanda-Siriwijaya Centre at ISEAS,
Tansen Sen said, "Most importantly, in the last two years,
Singapore has attracted expert scholars on India and China
from different parts of the world, making it an appropriate
place to conduct research on the two countries and promote
dialogue between them."
"A necessary dialogue between India and China is of
increasing importance to this part of the world, in order to
make sure our region is not neglected or forgotten when the
big people talk to one another," Professor Wang Gangwu,
chairman of NUS` East Asia Institute was quoted as saying by
the paper.
The consortium hopes to invite a speaker from China
for its next lecture and has set a goal to host a flagship
conference at some point, it said.
The idea of Singapore acting as a catalyst for
exchanges between India and China came up last year when
Singapore`s Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong visited New Delhi.
He had told the Indian government about a meeting that
Singapore`s state investor Temasek Holdings wanted to host
between top government officials and business leaders from
India and China in the city state.
PTI
