On his first visit to India as the new CEO of the Centre for Australian-India Relations (CAIR), former Australian diplomat Ryan Neelam, who has earlier served in Hong Kong, and the UN Security Council in New York, talks to Divya A about the need for New Delhi and Canberra to come together amid geopolitical tensions, and towards a free Indo-Pacific, and the collaboration on energy security. Neelam — who traces his roots to India and has family living in Mumbai and Bangalore — also talks about the role of the Indian diaspora in taking the bilateral ties to the next level. Edited excerpts from an interview: CAIR was announced by Australian PM Anthony Albanese in 2023 with a $28.1 million investment, during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Sydney. Three years down, does the organisation have a specific goal for the future? We have an advisory committee of 12 prominent Australians from business, arts, culture and sport, including Steve Waugh.…