April 21, 2020 — ASPI Senior Fellow Puneet Talwar speaks with Taranjit Singh Sandhu, India's ambassador to the United States. (28 min.)

This is the 11th in a series of webcast events by the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) entitled “Coronavirus, Asia, and the World.” Throughout the coming weeks, ASPI will be presenting web-only programs every Tuesday and Thursday to analyze the scope of the ramifications from the novel coronavirus across the Asia-Pacific region and the world. All events will be live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook. For information about future events in this series and for ASPI’s additional coronavirus content see here.

The Indian government has taken some of the most drastic measures in the world to combat the spread of COVID-19 within the country. The government closed down India’s borders, evacuated its citizens from epicenters around the world, and implemented a three-week-long national lockdown — the largest lockdown in the world.

These vigorous efforts have resulted in a relatively low number of cases in India thus far. As of April 9, India had only 5,734 confirmed cases and 166 deaths as the global number neared 1.5 million cases and 90,000 deaths. While these policies appeared to have slowed transmission rates, there are many challenges ahead for the Indian government. In the coming weeks, it will attempt to limit the spread of the outbreak while managing the immense public health and economic consequences. To discuss the government’s coronavirus response and the challenges ahead, the Asia Society Policy Institute is honored to host a discussion with India’s Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu. ASPI Senior Fellow Puneet Talwar will moderate the discussion.

SPEAKERS

Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu is India's current Ambassador to the United States and has served in the Indian Mission in Washington DC twice before, as Deputy Chief of Mission from 2013 to 2017 and as First Secretary (Political) from 1997 to 2000. Prior to his current assignment, Ambassador Sandhu was High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka from 2017 to 2020. Before that, he served as Consul General of India in Frankfurt from 2011 to 2013. He has also held numerous senior positions in the Ministry of External Affairs, including as Joint Secretary (United Nations) and Joint Secretary (Administration) heading the Human Resource Division. He started his distinguished career in the Indian Foreign Service in 1988 in the former Soviet Union. 

Puneet Talwar (moderator) is a Senior Fellow with the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Mr. Talwar is a former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs (2014 to 2015) and a former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council for the Gulf States, Iran, and Iraq (2009 to 2014). He played a central role in the backchannel diplomacy that produced the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to working in the White House, Talwar was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff for twelve years and a top advisor to then-Senator Joe Biden. He served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff from 1999 to 2001 and was a foreign policy advisor in the House of Representatives in the early 1990s.