By IANS
New Delhi : Top strategic experts from India and abroad will gather here Tuesday for the 10th Asia Security Conference that will explore myriad strategic challenges facing the continent, including the dangers of nuclear proliferation and trans-national terror networks.
The three-day conference, organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), India’s premier think tank, will have ‘Asian security in the 21st century’ as its main theme and explore an entire gamut of strategic issues impacting security in the continent.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony will kick off the seminar Tuesday, N.K. Sisodia, director-general IDSA, announced here Friday. There will be special focus on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he added.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will deliver the keynote address, which is expected to unveil the Indian perspective on major strategic challenges facing Asia in the context of India emerging as a major power.
Former Dutch prime minister Rudd Lubbers will be the guest speaker at the closing session of the three-day seminar.
Chinese scholar Xu Xin, Japanese expert Shigekatsu Kondo, Yevegeniy Kozokhin of Russia, Gudrun Wacker of Germany, James Cotton of Australia and Shireen Mazari of Pakistan are some of the leading speakers participating in the conference.
Well-known American journalist and expert Selig Harrison, author of several books, including “India: The Most Dangerous Decades” and “Superpower Rivalry in the Indian Ocean”, will speak on North Korea and the future of nuclear stability in East Asia.