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Meeting No: 2519 091 0989
Password: diplomacy

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About the Speakers

Harsh Vardhan Shringla

Harsh Vardhan Shringla is retired Indian diplomat of Indian Foreign Service who served as Chief Coordinator for India’s G20 Presidency in 2023. He is a Viksit Bharat Distinguished Fellow from January 2025. He has previously served as Foreign Secretary of India and India's Ambassador to the United States, High Commissioner to Bangladesh, and Ambassador to Thailand. He is a Viksit Bharat Distinguished Fellow from January 2025.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla joined the IFS in 1984 and spent 38 years in the service. He held a variety of positions both in New Delhi, at the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs, and abroad at Indian diplomatic missions. He was posted in France, the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York City, Vietnam, Israel, and South Africa.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla has served in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi as Joint Secretary (Director General) responsible for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives. He has also headed the United Nations Political and SAARC Divisions in the Ministry. Earlier, he served as Director of the Northern Division dealing with Nepal and Bhutan and as Deputy Secretary of the Europe West Division.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla has graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University and has worked in the Corporate and Public Sectors in India prior to joining the Indian Foreign Service. He has pursued courses and published papers on conflict prevention, economic diplomacy, the Indian diaspora and India-Bangladesh relations.

Avtar Singh Bhasin

Avtar Singh Bhasin retired from the Ministry of External Affairs in 1993 as director historical division after three decades of service. Since retirement, he has taken to academic research. He was senior fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research and then honorary fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. His area of research has been India's relations with neighbouring countries. He has over the years compiled documents on India's relations with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. He published an annual series 'India's Foreign Relations' for the Ministry of External Affairs from 2002 t0 2013. He has also been contributing articles on South Asian affairs in newspapers and journals.

Suhasini Haidar

Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu, one of India’s oldest and most respected national dailies, regularly writing on Foreign policy issues. Prior to this, Suhasini was Foreign Affairs editor and prime time anchor for India’s leading 24-hr English news channel CNN-IBN (2005-2014), where she presented the signature show “WorldView with Suhasini Haidar”, and Correspondent for CNN International’s New Delhi bureau before that. In 2015, she was the recipient of the most prestigious Indian print journalism ‘Prem Bhatia’ award, and has won a series of awards for her work in Television as well.

Over the course of her 26-year reporting career, Suhasini has covered the most challenging stories & conflicts from the most diverse regions including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Libya, Lebanon and Syria. In India, she has covered the foreign affairs beat for over a decade and her domestic assignments include political profiles and in-depth reportage from conflict zones including Kashmir, where she was injured in a bomb blast in 2000.

Suhasini Haidar worked with CNN International from 1995-2005, regularly reporting from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.She was part of the CNN team that won the Columbia-Dupont Broadcast Journalism Award in 2005 for coverage of the tsunami in India, and worked for CNN in New York for a month during its 9/11 coverage.