Area of Interest: ASEAN and Economic Diplomacy
Amb. (Retd.) Sudhir Devare is a former Indian diplomat who joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1964. He has served in various Indian embassies, including those in Moscow, Washington, Geneva, and Myanmar. As the first Indian Ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia, he established the Indian embassies in these countries in 1992, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs (1998-2001), he played a pivotal role in shaping and implementing India’s Look East policy and advancing multilateral economic relations globally. He was a National Security Advisory Board member in 2002-03 and a Visiting Professor at the Centre of East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
He served as Vice-Chairman of the Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries, a prominent think-tank on international economic issues based in New Delhi. During his tenure at RIS, he contributed to initiating proposals for Free Trade Agreements with Southeast and East Asian countries and articulated the concept of an Asian Economic Community. He was also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore (2003-06), and was associated with the Weatherhead Centre at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, in 2007-08. He continues to be associated with the centre as a Fellow and is a member of the Eminent Persons and Experts’ Group of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). Amb. Devare currently serves as Chairman of the Research Advisory Council of RIS and the Society for Indian Ocean Studies.
Publications
Devare, S. (2006). India & Southeast Asia: Towards Security Convergence. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. India & Southeast Asia: Towards Security Convergence
Devare, S. (2008). Rising India and Indians in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia, 287-300. Rising India and Indians in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Devare, S. T., & Indian Foreign Affairs Journal. (2011). India’s’ Rediscovery’of the East. Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, 337-356. India’s’ Rediscovery’of the East
Chakraborti, T., Devare, S. T., & Chakraborty, M. (2020). India’s strategy in the South China sea. Routledge. India’s strategy in the South China sea
Devare, S. T. (2023). Withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership—Where Does It Take India?. In ASEAN and India: The Way Forward (pp. 149-154). Withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership—Where Does It Take India?
