Webinar Link

Meeting No: 2512 159 0147
Password: deal

Certificate of Participants

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Abstract

The US–Iran War and the emerging peace deal have become a defining geopolitical development of 2026. Following months of military confrontation, disruptions to energy markets, and heightened regional instability, Washington and Tehran reached a 14-point interim agreement aimed at extending a ceasefire, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and initiating a 60-day framework for negotiations on sanctions relief, security arrangements, and nuclear issues. This webinar examines the origins of the conflict, the strategic interests of key actors, the economic and energy implications, and the prospects for a durable settlement. It also assesses whether the current deal represents a pathway to peace or merely a temporary pause in regional tensions.

Short Bio

Prof Sanjay Kathuria

Sanjay Kathuria, a former lead economist with the World Bank, is one of the leading thinkers and commentators on economic integration in South Asia and the economic development of the region. He is a fellow at the Wilson Center, a senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in India, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and visiting faculty member at Ashoka University. During 27 years at the World Bank, from 1992 to 2019, he worked in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia, including field assignments in New Delhi and Dhaka. Before joining the World Bank, he was a fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi, from 1982 to 1992. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and MPhil and PhD degrees in economics from Oxford University.

Amb. Y. K. Sinha (Retd.)

Y.K. Sinha is a diplomat whose career has spanned 37 years. During this time, he has handled assignments at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi and in Indian diplomatic missions in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York. He holds the rank of Secretary to the Government of India. Before coming to the UK, he was High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka. Prior to this, he was Additional Secretary and headed the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Division at the Ministry of External Affairs for almost four years. From 2007-2009, he was Ambassador of India to Venezuela and served as Consul General in Dubai from 2003-2006.

Prof. Ashwini Mohapatra

Ashwini Mohapatra is a Professor at Centre for West Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the faculty of the School of International Studies (SIS), JNU, Prof. Aswini K. Mohapatra is an outstanding teacher with over thirty years of teaching and research experience. He has successfully guided research works of seventy-five PhD and M. Phil scholars. In addition to a self-authored book, Foreign Policy of Turkey: Continuity & Change and edited volume titled Revisiting Hill-Valley Connection in Northeast India by Macmillan, he has published a number of research papers and articles in referred journals, edited volumes and periodicals, and in the leading newspapers of the country. Another book titled Decolonising the Indian Mind: Exploring Possibilities edited by him is under publication. Prof. Mohapatra was the visiting Professor at the Chou University, Tokyo, Japan, Visiting Fellow to Maison Des Sciences De L’Homme (MSH), Paris, France and the European Union (EU) Visitor to Brussels.

Prof. Mohapatra has served as a member of the Society of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS), Kolkata, Ministry of Culture between 2018 and 2023, and as a member of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi between 2017 and 2023. Currently, he is a member of the Press Council of India, New Delhi.

Lt. Gen. P.S. Rajeshwar (Retd.)

Lt Gen PS Rajeshwar was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery in December 1980. A gunner and aviator, he is an alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College, Army War College and National Defence College(s) in New Delhi and Philippines. He has actively taken part in Operation Meghdoot and Operation Rakshak. He commanded a Medium Regiment in Operation Parakram, an infantry brigade on the Line of Control, a Counter Insurgency Force in Jammu & Kashmir and a Corps in the Desert sector.

He also served on key staff assignments and UN Peacekeeping missions in Mozambique and Rwanda. His apex responsibilities, both tri-service, included the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) and the Commander-in Chief of the Andaman & Nicobar Command (CINCAN) from where he retired in May 2020.