The Morung Express Shillong, August 18 (MExN): A conclave organized by thinktank Asian Confluence in collaboration with the US Consulate General Kolkata was held with the theme, ‘The North Eastern Region of India and the neighbourhood as a strategic connector for the Indo Pacific region,’ at the Asian Confluence headquarter in Shillong on August 18.

To promote regional cooperation on shared waterways in Eastern South Asia extending up to the Indo-Pacific region, re-imagining river development through multi-faceted regional cooperation and stepped-up connectivity is critically important. As rivers are envisioned as a metaphor for connecting lands, people, cultures and traditions meanwhile spurring growth and trade-related activities, special emphasis must be laid on promoting best practices in order to protect and preserve rivers through conscious and planned endeavours. The scope for bilateral and multilateral exchanges, knowledge sharing and dialogues needs to be explored in this regard.

ICE WaRM is looking forward to collaborating on future projects with India based organisation, Asian Confluence. Finding synergies in the values and scope of activities of our organisations, ICE WaRM and Asian Confluence signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2019 to partner on capacity development including water and energy policy and governance.

Ambassador Hiramatsu made speeches at the opening ceremony of “India International Cherry Blossom Festival 2018” and at “Dialogue with States” on 14 November during his visit to Meghalaya.

On 5 October, 20 representatives from civil society, government, and the academic sector, representing seven countries which are part of the Mekong and Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basins, met in Bangkok to identify cross-basin learning and collaboration opportunities. The event was co-organised by the IUCN BRIDGE Programme and the Asian Confluence, India.

Tourism destinations across the globe are facing problems of overcrowding and degradation of resources making it imperative to look for sustainability. Kathleen Pessolano, the Programme director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), a US-based NGO, spoke to a section of the media after a lecture on sustainable tourism. “Destinations nowadays are experiencing overcrowding and degradation of resources. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has announced, based on its members’ priorities, the top three issues that tourism needs to take into account for the future,” Pessolano said.

The Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs (AIDIA) and Asia Confluence signed the Memorandum of Understanding during the Shillong Dialogue recently organized by the Asian Confluence. The major thrust of the MoU are to focus on jointly conducting research projects on Public Policy, International Affairs, Trade Diplomacy and others; organizing workshop, seminar and conference in partnership; and fellow exchange program.

The 21-year-old regional organisation, which will hold its fourth summit on August 30-31, was formed because of the opportunities to make headway in economic and social development through cooperation, but it has achieved modest success. It has a relevance independent of SAARC or ASEAN and goals of its own to pursue

Asian confluence and NEOtakus organised a two-day Shangri-La Cosplay festival on the premises of Asian Confluence in the city on January 20 and 21 to promote Indo-Japan relations. Chakbi Lombi was announced as the preliminary winner at the Shangri-La festival and will also get a chance to represent the country, after further screening at a National level, for the World Cosplay Summit in Japan.

A two-day seminar ‘Shillong Dialogue’ India and Sub Himalayan Eastern Neighbours: Shared Borders, Shared Opportunities: Transforming Geo Spaces to Celebrating Ideas, Skills, People’, organised by the Asian Confluence is underway in the city. Speaking at the inaugural session Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma highlighted the need for improved connectivity with the neighbouring countries for transformative growth of the region.

SHILLONG: Most of the northeastern states share borders with the neighbouring countries and there is a huge opportunity for developing trade and economic growth that will be mutually beneficial to the region, India as well as the other countries, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Thursday.

A group of eminent persons from the eastern and northeastern parts of the country, as well as four neighbouring countries recently came together to brainstorm on the development opportunities across the border and find a sustainable way to make them a reality.

North East chief ministers should speak with one voice on important issues of the region, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said at the interaction with Japanese Ambassador, Kenji Hiramatsu at the Asian Confluence here today.

Asian Confluence hosted a round table discussion and interaction on “India-Myanmar Third Space Relations”. The event was graced by the Guest of Honour, Hon’ble Ambassador of India to Myanmar, H. E. Amb. Vikram Misri. Amb. Misri discussed in detail about how development in Myanmar affects India, “If there is peace in Myanmar, their bilateral tie also develops” he said. India has a physical connectivity with Myanmar; however what we do not seem to have is an institutional connectivity. The discussion aimed to realize and revive the economic and institutional ties between the two countries in sync with India’s Neighbourhood First policy. There was a brain-storming session took part by individuals from all walks of life, who drew significant comments and suggestions on improving multilateral relations of India with its immediate neighbours, especially Myanmar. Such an interaction stirs healthy economic relations between the countries, which is also an impetus in reviving the long lost traditions that the two shared, prior to Independence. Students from Myanmar, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh who were specially invited, actively took part in the interactive session where Zau Khun Nawng, a student from Myanmar who is studying at St Anthony’s College, Shillong, shared that St Anthony’s College is the only college which offers admissions to students from Myanmar, while NEHU and MLCU are the only two universities in Meghalaya that admit them. Interestingly, Khalter Khampa from Nagaland gave a surprised presentation on prevailing circumstances affecting the connectivity and relationship of the two nations, and requested the diplomat to take consideration on the matters. The event saw a large number of participants ranging from Distinguished fellows, including Retired IAS Officer and Member of North Eastern Council, M. P. Bezbaruah; Former Ambassador, Riewad Warjri; Retired IAS Officer and former Member of North Eastern Council, P. P. Shrivastav; to eminent personalities like ICARE president, Toki Blah; Chief Secretary, Government of Meghalaya, K.S. Kropha; L.S. Gassah; Sajal Nag; Abhijeet Choudhury; Ashoke Datta; and River Wahlang. Other scholars and observers like Amena Passah; Dr. Deigracia Nongkynrih; Dr. Suparna Bahattacharjee; Dr. Tejimala Gurung Nag; K.N. Kumar, Principal Secretary, Government of Meghalaya; Mrs. Beatrice Warjri; Mrs. Dolly Mishri also attended the rare occasion.

The Asian Confluence hosted “The India-Myanmar Third Space Relations”, here on Saturday. Indian Ambassador to Myanmar, Vikram Misri, was the chief guest on the occasion. Chief Secretary K.S. Kropha, ICARE president Toki Blah and other distinguished participants like L.S. Gassah, Abhijeet Choudhury, M. P. Bezberuah, P.P. Srivastava, Riewad Warjri, Ashoke Datta and River Wahlang attended the programme.

As policy makers, we have made policies driven by greed, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said while addressing the audience at Asian Confluence on Friday at a discussion on “Green Economy: Promises and Pitfalls.”

It is rare that a jaded water expert feels elated after a river conference: very often the same hackneyed thoughts are re-circulated by the same lot of seminarians one meets again and again. This time, however, the mid-July NADI 2016 festival in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya in North-East India, was different and very pleasantly so: it was one that can truly be called a paradigm shifting event. Hosted by the Meghalaya government with support from the Centre, as well as established outfits of NGOs and academia such as Asian Confluence, Aaranyak and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Institute, it saw a shift in water discourse that was almost euphoric.

Initiated by the Asian Confluence, the Nadi Festival witnessed the participation of 5 countries with common river systems. With the river as a protagonist, the countries discussed policy ideas, and a shared legacy of dialects, cuisines and arts and culture. Maps draw up a political boundary, but people living for generations close to nature, at the grassroots, know only of a confluence of culture, trade and co-existence, celebrated along the rivers they live by. Come July and the rains insistently establish their significance in the lives of people in North East India, our most biodiverse landscape. The festival of Behdeinkhlam, celebrated by the indigenous faith in Meghalaya, seems in tune with the monsoon’s build up. Drum-beats drive the festivities as offerings are made to ancestors and rituals that venerate nature’s incarnates with folklores, take place. Processions dance down the hillside in a riverine fashion with tower-like structures called Rot or Raths, only be immersed in culmination at the sacred pool at Jowai.

The two-day Asian Confluence River Festival - NADI 2016, the first of its kind in the region, began at the State Convention Centre on Friday. Speakers and observers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanamar and India, besides experts on rivers and rural development have come together to explore the possibilities of enhancing cultural ties and amplifying the creative use of riverine connectivity by catalyzing environment friendly trade and tourism between the North-East region and surrounding neighbours.

India’s North Eastern Region (NER) is surrounded by five countries – Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar. The transboundary Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin that covers 1.7 million square kilometres and impacts the lives of over 620 million people in these six countries represents one of the largest fluvial (riverine processes, deposits and landforms) systems of the world. The challenges and opportunities faced by the riverine systems in eastern South Asia was the subject of an intensive dialogue at a recent major international conference, the Nadi (river) Festival, among political leaders, experts and ‘third space’ activists at Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. It was co-hosted by Asian Confluence, a public policy think-tank for the north-eastern Indian states based in Shillong, and the Government of Meghalaya, on July 15 and 16, 2016. In-depth deliberations generated both heat and light, but they also produced pointers for the way forward.

Rivers and cultural links can tie India’s northeast to the rest of the country and the region as a whole.

The two day NADI festival-2016 organised by the Asian Confluence, India, East Asia Centre, Shillong, in collaboration with the Meghalaya Government and the Maulana Abul Kamal Azad Institute of Asian Studies assumes significance. It was a two day conference organised between 15 and 16 July 2016. Noted speakers and experts from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and north eastern states of India sat together to discuss issues of connectivity and people. Rivers was the central theme of discussions, as besides serving as a means of transport, rivers stood as a connective narrative among people for centuries now.

SHILLONG, July 17: The two-day River Festival titled ‘NADI: Listen to the River’ organized by the Asian Confluence, India, East Asia Centre, Shillong, in collaboration with Government of Meghalaya and the Maulana Abul Kamal Azad Institute of Asian Studies has left behind major takeaways for the stakeholders. It was a celebration of the spirit of commonality between the north eastern states and neighboring countries through the rivers of the region, which had for long been the treasured highways of culture and unison among the people. The festival, which concluded last Saturday, was attended by Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma; Bangladesh Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister, Rashed Khan Menon; Bangladesh Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Shahriar Alam; Mizoram Chief Minister, Lal Thanhawla; former Water Resources Minister from Nepal, Dipak Gyawali, former Ambassador of Bhutan to India, Dago Tshering; High Commissioner of Bangladesh in India, Syed Muazzem Ali and High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla during the inaugural session.

Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister of Bangladesh Rashed Khan Menon has stressed on the need to introduce direct flights between Dhaka and Shillong, Dhaka and Guwahati and Dhaka-Kolkata-Agartala, to promote tourism between India’s Northeastern region and Bangladesh. Speaking at the two-day Asian Confluence led Festival – NADI 2016 here on Friday, Menon said both the countries are working to introduce a direct flight between Dhaka and Guwahati and both the governments can also think of connecting Shillong with the Bangladesh capital.

The two-day Nadi Festival is underway in Shillong. The conference looks at rivers as important linkages between countries that share common international boundaries. It has brought together high level ministers, diplomats and participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar to thrash out possibilities of trade, commerce and cultural linkages through the intricate rivers systems that crisscross the region and could be harnessed for better waterways communication. Asian Confluence, a civil society organization that sees itself as the third space linking governments and other public institutions has been in the forefront of advocacy to bring the South and South East Asian countries whose futures are interlinked, on a common platform to work out a basic framework not just for creating trade outlets but to explore possibilities for people to people interface and cultural exchanges. This time the State Government of Meghalaya and the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Foundation for Asian Studies, Kolkata have joined hands to organize the Nadi Conference.

The two-day Asian Confluence River Festival - NADI 2016, the first of its kind in the region, began at the State Convention Centre on Friday. Speakers and observers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanamar and India, besides experts on rivers and rural development have come together to explore the possibilities of enhancing cultural ties and amplifying the creative use of riverine connectivity by catalyzing environment friendly trade and tourism between the North-East region and surrounding neighbours.

In celebration of the “spirit of commonality” and exploring the creative use of riverine between Northeast India and its eastern neighbours, the Asian Confluence River Festival—NADI2016 will be held in Shillong on July 15-16. The two-day festival, which will begin at 10 am, “celebrates the spirit of commonality between the Indian Northeastern states and her Eastern neighbours through the rivers of the region, which had for long been the treasured highways of culture and unison among the people and the fragile ecology they sustain”.

Representatives from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal will be meeting in Shillong next week participate in a first ever river festival aimed at fostering connectivity, trade links and sharing of environmental issues. The focus of the ‘NADI 2016’ is to celebrate the spirit of commonality between the Northeastern states of India and her neighbours through the 600 plus major and minor rivers surpassing political boundaries, Sabya Dutta, who heads the Asian Confluence and organiser of the event said.

The focus of the 'NADI 2016' is to celebrate the spirit of commonality between the Northeastern states of India and her neighbours through the major and minor rivers surpassing political boundaries.

The 81st birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was celebrated at the Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture here on Wednesday. Hundreds of people from the Tibetan community in Shillong among others took part in what was the “first public celebration of the spiritual leader’s birthday in the North East”.

The state government in collaboration with Asian Confluence will organize the 2016 NADI River Festival in the state’s capital on July 15 – 16, 2016. The two-day festival will be held at Pinewood Convention Center and Sri Aurobindo Institute, Shillong. The festival is a bottom up effort: focusing on celebrating the rivers of the region, with particular focus on those between the North Eastern States of India and her immediate eastern neighbors and the fragile ecology they sustain: for they have been the treasured water highways of culture for centuries gone by. They form very basis of civilization.

A 35 member delegation from Bhutan led by their MP and a senior civil servant attached to the King of Bhutan and comprising professionals from different technical, legal, educational, scientific and environmental specialties arrived at Shillong recently on a learning trip. The delegation visited three states of North East India, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya. This group had an interface with civil society members, government officials and people of other professions at the Asian Confluence. There was a healthy exchange of views and several questions posed by both sides were succinctly answered. Some of the participants from the home state were however curious as to what the Bhutanese delegation with a small and manageable population, a carbon neutral environment and a country known for maintaining a healthy Gross National Happiness Index, would want to learn from India and its states which are battling the ravages of environmental degradation and population explosion.

Meghalaya and Bhutan policy makers held an interactive session on Saturday stressing on the need to adopt “Happiness Model of Bhutan”. The Asian Confluence, and the Royal Institute of Governance and Strategic Studies, Bhutan’s most prestigious think-tank, hosted a joint interaction between policy makers from Bhutan and Meghalaya. A 35-member visiting delegation of senior policy makers from Bhutan, led by Chewang Rinzin, Dy Chamberlain to the King of Bhutan and Tashi Wangyal, Member of Parliament from Bhutan, interacted with a select crowd at the Asian Confluence Center, comprising senior policy makers, artists, activists, media and heads of various institutions.

In connection with the upcoming Indo-Bangla River Festival titled NADI 2016, a “photowalk” was conducted beside the Umiam Lake by Asian Confluence on Saturday under the guidance of well known photographer Rohit Suri.

Asian Confluence – A Third Space Initiative in celebrating the spirit of unity and livelihood of people divided by borders and connected by a commonality designed by nature itself, is hosting the Indo-Bangla River Festival entitled NADI 2016. The Competition will be curated by celebrated photographers Rohit Suri and and Abir Abdullah from Bangladesh.

The “Agartala Doctrine,” a compilation of essays on India’s engagement with South East Asia and North East India’s role in the Look East Policy, edited by senior journalist turned foreign policy analyst, Subir Bhaumick was launched by former Ambassador Riewad Warjri at Asian Confluence on Saturday. Discussing journalist author Subir Bhaumik’s ‘Agartala Doctrine: Proactive Northeast in Indian foreign policy, a select panel of diplomats, scholars, politicians and media persons conceded that Tripura’s handling of Bangladesh as a strategy of appropriate political response is worth emulating for India’s neighbourhood policy.

An interaction between theatre artists from Meghalaya and Bangladesh was hosted at the auditorium of the Asian Confluence Center on Friday, as part of the Asian Confluence Third Space events to foster people to people interaction across the borders.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living will visit Shillong for the second time at the invitation of the Asian Confluence on December 14 and 15 at the 5th Ground, Polo.

This year World Peace Day celebration was initiated by veteran artiste Lou Majaw who, through his Foundation, helped organise an art exhibition featuring paintings by local artist Madhumita Ghosh, at Asian Confluence on Monday.

A Japanese scholar has enlightened a group of audience in Shillong about the propaganda war launched by Japanese against the Indian army during Second World War. ‘Dentan’ in Japanese, is a type of ‘propaganda leaflets’ that were scattered by the Japanese Army to discourage the enemy soldiers in the battlefield during the Second World War. Dentan, derived from Chinese, was not known to many here until Tomio Mizokami, Professor Emeritus, Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Japan, gave an informative insight into it through a talk titled ‘Anecdotes From History: Propaganda leaflets scattered by the Japanese Army in British India during World War II and specialties of Hindi used in them’ by Asian Confluence on Thursday evening.

Professor of Industrial Management Engineering at IIT, Kanpur, Dr Rahul Varman and faculty member at Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata; senior fellow, Indian Council for Social Science Research and guest faculty, IIT, Kanpur Dr Manali Chakrabarti graphically depicted the picture of history of the tortuous path of globalisation and the heavy cost it has entailed at the Asian Confluence Centre at Shillong on Friday evening titled “Balancing Development and Globalization” as part of its “Innovation Talk Series”. Dr Varman and Dr Chakrabarti narrated the horrific tale of civilizations that are extinct now and those that are surviving amidst globalization.

The picture of history of the tortuous path of globalization and the heavy cost it has entailed were graphically depicted by Dr Rahul Varman, Professor, Department of Industrial & Management Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and Dr Manali Chakrabarti, Honorary Adjunct Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata; Senior Fellow, Indian Council for Social Science Research and Guest Faculty, IIT, Kanpur at the Asian Confluence Centre at Shillong on Friday evening. Dr Varman and Dr Chakrabarti narrated the horrific tale of civilizations that are extinct now and those that are surviving amidst globalization in a talk titled “Balancing Development and Globalization” as part of the Centre’s “Innovation Talk Series”. According to Wikipedia, Globalization (or globalisation) is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.

The Asian Confluence is organizing a daylong roundtable “India’s Look East Policy: Strengthening the Look South Aspect: Exploring win-win synergies through Indo Bangladesh Border Trade and Tourism” on April 21 at its Conference Hall from 10:30am.

The Asian Confluence Centre organized an “Evening of Poetry” in collaboration with Poetry Society of Shillong on Wednesday. Dr Diti Ronen, famed poet from Israel, enthralled the audience with a reading of her poems. The program also featured a large number of local poets who read out their poetry. The director of Asian Confluence, Sabyasachi Dutta hopes that this will be the start of a new beginning for poets of Shillong, which was a common sentiment expressed.

Asian Confluence, the premier Think Tank based in Shillong, held a colloquium in New Delhi in partnership with the Embassy of Japan, New Delhi, titled "Towards a Connected and Prosperous Bay of Region: Perspective on the Northeast India and Bangladesh Connectivity" at New Delhi on 11August, 2023.

Asian Confluence and the British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata jointly organised the Young Thinkers’ Conference (YTC) in Shillong on 8-9 August 2019. The theme of this year’s YTC in Shillong was: “India & the Neighbourhood: Next Gen Concerns & Ideas - Jobs, Skills and Education”.

A workshop held in Dhaka to enhance the potential trade-link between India and Bangladesh on agri- horticulture products.

Asian Confluence working on issues of water, connectivity, trade, tourism and culture in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Government of Arunachal Pradesh

The consultation shared key learning and best practices on water linked tourism and livelihood from the Mekong region and deliberated on how these best practices and ideas can be adapted in the North East and specifically in the context of Tripura.

Regional experts and leaders who assembled at the Shillong Dialogue recently organized by the Asian Confluence, unanimously felt that the Eastern South Asia sub-region has the natural advantage, commercial feasibility and also the political will to push for greater integration and cooperation. The dialogue was inaugurated by Mr. Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister, Meghalaya, who put forward a very positive and pro-integration pitch on behalf of the Meghalaya government and was also hopeful of bringing together the Chief Ministers from the other North Eastern states to make for a concerted pitch on greater connectivity with India’s Eastern Sub-Himalayan neighbours of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal. Mr. Surendra Pandey former Finance minister and Member of Parliament from Nepal and Shri Shakti Sinha, Director Nehru Memorial Museum and Library addressed the inaugural session in presence of experts from Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar.

The Asian Confluence will host a regional dialogue in Shillong on the 16th and 17th of August 2018, to focus on creation of trans-boundary agricultural and tourism value chains with neighbours Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The entire North Eastern region as well as the bordering districts of our immediate neighbours have immense untapped potential in terms of the rich variety of agricultural and horticultural produce. We want to discuss how the “Act East Policy” and the “Neighbourhood First Policy” of the government of India can help to produce livelihoods for the border communities and greater markets for the agriculture produce of the region as a whole. It may be noted that the state government of Meghalaya recently held the “Jackfruit Festival” while Tripura hosted the “Pineapple Festival”. The dialogue builds on these initiatives to build a visioning platform on how we can revision our shared borders as agri-processing and tourism hubs ensuring peace, prosperity and human security. The Chief Minister of Meghalaya Shri Conrad Sangma will inaugurate the dialogue which will see senior representation from government, academic and experts from all the countries.

The Asian Confluence and Vietnam Institute for Indian & Southwest Asian Studies (VIISAS) signed an Memorandum of Understanding to promote closer cooperation and understanding between India and Vietnam , with special focus on India’s North east region and promoting India’s Act East Policy. In September 2018, the Vietnam Institute for Indian & Southwest Asian Studies in association with the Asian Confluence will host as seminar on the theme “INDIA’S RISE AND ITS IMPACT ON REGIONAL SECURITY ARCHITECTURE” in Hanoi. Vietnam and India are civilizational partners. Our North East region has strong links at the level of language and lifestyle with Vietnam. It is time we explore these further to promote greater people to people linkages between us. Asian Confluence honors and deeply values our association with VIISAS said Sabyasachi Dutta, Executive Director Asian Confluence “We at VIISAS also highly value our ties We at VIISAS also highly value our ties with the Asian Confluence”said Dr. Lee Hang Nga, Head, Dept. of Historical & Cultural Studies VIISAS, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS).

As Katmandu gets ready to host the summit meet of the BIMSTEC, “The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation” with leaders of the eight member nations (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand), and Sri Lanka gets ready to take over the chairmanship, the Asian Confluence along with other think-tanks participated in a roundtable on advancing BIMSTEC cooperation in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Organized by the Delhi Policy Group and the Asia Foundation, these are a part of a series of roundtables consisting of experts from various academia, think-tanks, government and civil society organizations to bring about an actionable policy recommendation on areas such as connectivity, energy cooperation, trade, people to people contact and gender equitable solutions in the context of BIMSTEC. As part of the series, the Asian Confluence represented by its Executive Direction, Sabyasachi Dutta has been group mentor in each roundtable on the theme of fostering people to people contact in the BIMSTEC region, besides representing the relevance and role of the development of the North eastern region of India in advancing BIMSTEC cooperation. The group has so far met thrice already in Delhi (India), Yangon ( Myanmar) and Colombo ( Sri Lanka). In his opening address in Colombo, the Indian Ambassador, Taranjit Singh Sandhu described people to people contact at the very heart of the success of BIMSTEC.

The Asian Confluence will be a co host the 2018 edition of the Cherry blossom festival along with the Indian Council for Cultural relations and the government of Meghalaya. Following the recent visit of the Japanese ambassador to Shillong in which he delivered at public lecture at the Asian Confluence and planted a Japanese cheery plant “Sakura” at the Raj Bhavan Shillong gifted by the Japan chapter the Asian Confluence, the Cherry Blossom festival 2018 will feature a substantial involvement of Japanese art, food and music . "Japan, through its development agency JICA has been involved in infrastructure development work in the region for a long time. However we feel the space of culture and promoting more people to people ties between India and Japan needs to be further explored. We are really keen that the Cherry Blossom festival will provide an opportunity for that" said Sabyasachi Dutta, Executive Director, Asian Confluence.

As part of its initiative of water resource management Asian Confluence presented a framework for creating closer collaboration for effective management of riverine resources between Meghalaya and Bangladesh in a workshop on water management in the Meghna Basin, facilitated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The meeting, attended by representatives of the Meghalaya water resources management department and a host of experts from Bangladesh held two day long deliberations on role of civil society and government working together to create more action and awareness on water resources conservation. The current discourse on water resource development is based on the ‘division of resources’ rather than ‘sharing of benefits’. Benefit sharing as an approach to negotiation could lead to effective agreements by ensuring win-win outcomes for multiple stakeholders. Mutually beneficial benefit-sharing agreements at the trans-boundary level will also have a ‘spill over’ repercussion on multilateral cooperation between the countries. However, the development and operationalization of effective ‘benefit sharing’ agreements is a step-wise process requiring identification of the ‘basket of benefits’ and ensuring its equitable distribution among the stakeholders said Mr. Vishwa Ranjan from IUCN regional headquarters in Bangkok, who facilitated the discussions.

The Japanese ambassador to India, H.E Kenji Hiramatsu delivered a lecture at the Asian Confluence in presence of the Chef Minister of Meghalaya Shri. Conrad Sangma. Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, formerly Indian ambassador to Japan, Anil Wadhwa formerly Secretary-East, ministry of External affairs were also present. In the interaction titled “New Contours in Indo Japan Relations: reflections from the third Space in north eastern India”, the ambassador presented a three sixty degrees view of the full gamut of engagement in India-Japan relations and the special role of the North Eastern region.

The union minister of state Shri Jitendra Singh inaugurated the two day "Policy Dialogue and Young Scholars Forum" on the theme "The Age of Multilateralism and Connecting India’s Northeast: Opportunities and Challenges" hosted jointly by the Asian Confluence and the Indian Council for World Affairs(ICWA) at the prestigious Sapru House New Delhi on March 19 and 20th. For the very first time, the ministry of DoNER was also a co host to the event. In his inaugural address, he congratulated Asian Confluence and ICWA for organising the event and also for facilitating DoNER’s work. He said that in the past the northeast was a land of unexplored potential; and there were both (a) physical and (b) psychological reasons for not realising that potential. While we have taken steps towards realising the potential, we need to remember that the region is a land of "diversities within diversities", i.e. within the larger unity in diversity that describes India. The Northeast is not a homogeneous whole but has learned to live in harmony.