Asia is the fulcrum of the Indo-Pacific. The “Asian Age” or the “Asian Century” in the era of the Indo-Pacific is being redefined as a broader concept signalling the inevitable rise of different parts of Asia, which are home to some of the world’s most ancient civilizations. For the past two decades, if not more, Asia has re-emerged to shape global dynamics by involving many stakeholders from the extended neighbourhood of Africa, West Asia, Eurasia as well as the great powers that have a long-standing economic and security stake in different parts of Asia. Asia is expected to generate more than 50 per cent of the world’s GDP by 2024, and could account for nearly 40 per cent of global consumption, ushering in the ‘’Asian Age’.

Amb Sujan Chinoy is the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi since 2019. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Society of the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) and Member, Governing Council, Indian Council of World Affairs. He was a Member of the All-Party MPs Delegation to the UAE and West Africa in the context of OPERATION SINDOOR.

A career diplomat from 1981-2018, he was Ambassador to Japan and Mexico and the Consul General of India in Shanghai and Sydney. A specialist on China and politico-security-military issues, he headed the India-China Diplomatic and Military Expert Group negotiating the confidence-building measures (CBMs) dialogue with China on the boundary dispute from 1996-2000. At the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) from 2008-2012, he handled external and internal security policy issues. During his public service spanning 45 years, he has dealt with political, security, defence, trade and economic issues. His Foreign Service career included postings at the UN in New York and Saudi Arabia. He was the Chair of the Think20 engagement group for India’s G20 Presidency. Amb Chinoy has chaired the Mid-Term evaluation of the Modernisation Plans (III & IV) for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).

He speaks fluent Mandarin and is conversant in Japanese, German, French and Spanish. He is the author of World Upside Down: India Recalibrates Its Geopolitics (HarperCollins) and Global Tumult: India as a Pole Star (Rupa Publications) and has edited several books on defence, security and IR issues.

Smruti S Pattanaik is a Research Fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (MP-IDSA). She holds PhD in South Asian Studies from the School of International Studies, JNU. She was a visiting Asia Fellow at the department of International Relations, Dhaka University in 2004 and 2007,Kodikara Fellow in 1999, postdoctoral fellow at FMSH, Paris in 2008 and visiting fellow at PRIO in 2011, Fellow at the University of Hull in 2018, Visiting Professor on ICCR’s India Chair in Colombo University in 2013. She attended the prestigious Symposium on the East Asian Security (SEAS) Program of the US State Department and USPACOM in 2011. She has lectured extensively in India and abroad on India’s foreign policy and South Asia.

Dr Pattanaik has published more than 100 research articles and chapters on various aspects of politics in South Asia and have focused on India’s relations with its neighbours. She is the author of Elite Perception in Foreign Policy: Role of Print Media in influencing Indo-Pak relations, 1989-99 (2004) and has edited three books titled South Asia: Envisioning a Regional Future (2011) and Four Decades of India-Bangladesh Relations: Historical Context and Future Direction (2012), Recounting the Memories of Bangladesh’s Liberation War: Why It Is Still Relevant (Routledge, 2024) She has also authored a monograph Afghanistan and its Neighbourhood: In Search of a Stable Future (PRIO-IDSA, 2014).