With India’s gradual reopening to the world there is an increasing space for the emergence of specialized “niche diplomacies” and regional initiatives beyond New Delhi. Goa, in particular, can play a crucial role in facilitating India’s burgeoning economic, political and cultural relations with the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP) and the lusophone world. In line with Beijing’s efforts to leverage Macau’s potential, New Delhi could develop Goa into a strategic hub to foster relations with the emerging “Global South” and, in particular, with Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Macau, or East Timor. This talk identified Goa’s specific advantages in this regard, as well as concrete suggestions on how to transform this potential into influence and global brokerage capacity.
Dr. Constantino Xavier (Portugal) is a Fulbright-sponsored Ph.D. candidate in South Asian Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, in Washington DC. From 2004 to 2008 he lived in New Delhi, where he got his M.A. and M.Phil. in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University and worked as a press adviser at the Embassy of Portugal. In Lisbon, he taught Comparative Politics at the New University and coordinated a research project on Asia at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations. Constantino is currently a visiting fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, where he is researcher on India’s Africa policy. Contact: ch******@jh*.edu www.twitter.com/constantinox
P.C. Brookings.edu
