US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific: North Eastern Dialogue, Sikkim Chapter

Project Brief

India’s Northeast region holds immense potential to enhance the country’s connectivity with the wider Indo-Pacific. However, the region faces significant challenges, such as inadequate infrastructure and low levels of cross-border trade. The U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo- Pacific: North Eastern Dialogue aims to build awareness about the US Indo-Pacific Framework in the Northeast and its role in developing trade, connectivity, and economic prosperity in the region, through potential India-US cooperation.

The project will engage 200 stakeholders from various sectors across the Northeast. Through policy dialogues at both regional and national levels, the project aims to create a comprehensive understanding of the region’s challenges and opportunities in connectivity, trade, and economic prosperity. A major focus of the Dialogue will be assessing the region's physical and digital connectivity. Particular attention will be given to riverine and maritime infrastructure, vital for connecting the Northeast to the Indo-Pacific via the Bay of Bengal. The project will explore ways in which US-India cooperation can enhance trade logistics and fill infrastructural gaps.

Given the region’s long-standing economic concerns, the project will also explore possible collaborative endeavours that can enhance the growth of the region. Stakeholder engagement will be crucial to identifying the prevailing challenges in each of the selected states, and collaborative measures that can be undertaken to mitigate them, such as by enhancing people-to- people connectivity through India-US cooperation. The project will explore ways to harness the potential of India’s Northeast, promoting a more connected, and economically prosperous region, while contributing to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Agenda and Composition of the North-Eastern Dialogue

The project will be conducted through six policy dialogues in hybrid mode in five Northeastern states of Meghalaya, Assam, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram, a digital dialogue in Manipur, and two national level dialogues in Kolkata and New Delhi. It aims to promote awareness and foster discussions about the US Indo-Pacific Framework and its potential role in developing regional trade connectivity and economic prosperity. The Meghalaya Chapter and Assam Chapter of this series have already been conducted on 26 November and 13 December 2024, respectively. The third dialogue is scheduled as a day-long event in Gangtok , Sikkim, on 7 May 2025.

Each Dialogue will convene 37-40 delegates among which 27-30, will be joining in person and 9-10 will be joining digitally. Apart from participating in the dialogues, delegates will also be requested to fill out two survey questionnaires. The pre-dialogue survey is designed to gauge their existing awareness of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Framework and their perceptions about potential India-US collaboration in trade connectivity and economic prosperity in India’s Northeast. The post-dialogue survey will measure if there are any changes in their opinions after participating in the dialogues.