Amb. Dilip Lahiri
Visiting Fellow

Joined ORF
August 2007

Expertise
International Relations

Background
He is a former Indian diplomat, with long and diversified experience in international relations during 37 years in the Indian Foreign Service. His last posts outside India were as Ambassador to France, Spain, Peru and Bolivia, and he has worked and toured in many countries in South East and East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the US and Europe, Central America, the Pacific islands and the Caribbean. He has long experience of multilateral diplomacy, particularly in the United Nations system, and was also Dean of the Indian diplomatic school.

Ambassador Lahiri has led the Indian delegation to the Rome conference establishing the International Criminal Court, and was a member of the Indian delegation to the Kyoto Conference on climate change, several sessions of the UN General Assembly, and has been involved for many years in the negotiations on the restructuring of the UN and expansion of the Security Council, in the UN Human Rights Commission and the Commission on Disarmament.

He has spoken at several international seminars and published articles in journals and newspapers on Indian nuclear and security policy, and organized and edited a two volume compilation on "Indian Foreign Policy: An Agenda for the Twenty first Century' and a Spanish language book of essays by Spanish and Indian experts titled "India and Spain: 2000 years of interactions". He was the leader of the Indian side for the last India Spain dialogue. He has recently addressed an international seminar on the future of the European Union and was a lead speaker at a roundtable at the Royal United Services Institute at London on climate change and security in Asia .

He speaks Spanish and French, is proficient at bridge and chess, and fond of music, reading, cooking and wine. He is a history and anthropology buff. He has traveled as guest lecturer on cruises and talked about the history, art, culture and cuisine of Spain, France , Portugal and Southeast Asia.

Presently
He is a Visiting Fellow at ORF.

E-mail ID: diliplahiri@orfonline.org