H.E. Ambassador Salman Al Farisi

Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Rim Association

Ambassador Salman Al Farisi was appointed to the position of Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) by the IORA Council of Ministers on 17 th November 2021. Prior to his current position, he served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the Republic of South Africa, Kingdom of Eswatini, Republic of Botswana and Kingdom of Lesotho since 2018.

In addition, he has held several positions in his distinguished career including, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Arab Emirates Senior Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Institutional Relations and Acting Director General for Multilateral Affairs.

Ambassador Al Farisi holds a Master Degree in International Relations Tufts University, USA and a Bachelosr Degree in Economy and Development Studies University of Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He is currently a Doctoral Student for Policy Studies at University of Gadjah Mada, Indonesia,

Dr. Roger Kangas

NESA CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES

Dr. Roger Kangas is the Academic Dean of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies of the U.S. Department of Defense, located in Washington, DC.  Prior to becoming a faculty member at the NESA Center in 2007, Dr. Kangas served as a Professor of Central Asian Studies at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; Deputy Director of the Central Asian Institute at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC; Research Analyst on Central Asian Affairs for the Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) in Prague, Czech Republic; and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Mississippi.

Dr. Kangas has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense Combatant Commands, NATO, the US Air Force Special Operations School, U.S. Department of State, and other US government agencies, as well as several non-governmental organizations on issues relating to Central and South Asia, Russia, and the South Caucasus. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, an Associate Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (UK), and on the Advisory Boards of the Caspian Policy Center (Washington, DC) and the Near East Policy Forum (Canberra, Australia).

Dr. Kangas holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in Comparative Politics from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Doctorate degree in Political Science from Indiana University.

Dr. Alexey Kupriyanov

Panelist
Head of Group, South Asia and Indian Ocean, Primakov Institute

Dr Kupriyanov studied the Anglo-Saxon History at the Department of History of the Moscow City Teacher Training University and English language and literature in Ireland. He has a master’s degree in IR after graduating from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Dr Kupriyanov worked as a foreign affairs journalist on TV and in various newspapers.