Weaving Trust: Affective Diplomacy in India’s Neighbourhood

In an era marked by geopolitical flux, fractured multilateralism, and growing disconnection between states and societies, diplomacy is being compelled to evolve. Beyond formal negotiations and strategic calculations, softer, people-centric modes of engagement are gaining traction. Affective diplomacy reframes how states relate by placing emotions—and a sense of shared belonging—at the centre of diplomatic practice. While traditional diplomacy focuses on strategy, treaties, and interests, affective diplomacy sees affective signalling not as peripheral but as shaping how states interpret events and act. From post-conflict gestures to grief or sympathy, emotional communication shapes behaviour, bridges divides, recalibrates trust, and negotiates legitimacy. In a digital age, such displays circulate widely, moulding public sentiment, national image, and regional ties.

Affective diplomacy reframes how states relate by placing emotions—and a sense of shared belonging—at the centre of diplomatic practice.

As both an architect and stakeholder, India sits at the centre of this evolving paradigm. Having long engaged in soft power diplomacy in the neighbourhood, it is increasingly aligning this with affective logics through its Act East policy, placing people-to-people connections at the heart of its regional vision. Across platforms such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), and the Mekong–Ganga Cooperation (MGC), India seeks not just cooperation but deeper forms of connection—often subtle, yet increasingly strategic. This allows India to play a dual role: shaping affective diplomacy while also gaining from the trust, memory, and visibility it helps cultivate.

Affective Ties in ASEAN, BIMSTEC and MGC

ASEAN has institutionalised people-to-people connectivity as a core component of regional integration. The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 outlines education and cultural understanding as its key objectives, supported by initiatives such as the ASEAN Curriculum Sourcebook (2012) and the ASEAN Virtual Learning Resource Centre (2015), which foster regional awareness and pedagogical exchange. Tourism is framed as an economic driver and a force of cohesion through heritage routes, community ecotourism, and homestay networks. The ASEAN Foundation—established in 1997—continues to lead initiatives across arts, education, media, and youth development. Recent Summits increasingly include these engagements on the sidelines. For instance, the ASEAN Youth Dialogues—first held in 2022 in Cambodia, second held in 2023 in Jakarta—convene dozens of young leaders to debate ASEAN policy and discuss it directly with ASEAN decision-makers. Civil society networks, including the ASEAN Youth Organisation, run platforms such as the ASEAN Youth Exchange to foster intercultural ties and practical skills. These initiatives cultivate a regional consciousness grounded in emotional resonance, shared identity, and collaboration. Contributing to this momentum, India has stepped up its cultural presence within ASEAN, most recently through the 2024 ASEAN-India Music Festival—organised from 29 November–1 December 2024 in New Delhi—which celebrated unity through sound and shared art. It has also supported the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 and helped establish Information Communication Technology (ICT) training centres in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam or the CLMV countries.

India has stepped up its cultural presence within ASEAN, most recently through the 2024 ASEAN-India Music Festival—organised from 29 November–1 December 2024 in New Delhi—which celebrated unity through sound and shared art.

Furthermore, BIMSTEC also recognises people-to-people connectivity as a foundational aspect. The 2018 Kathmandu Declaration endorsed stronger links among think tanks, academia, media, and cultural institutions. This has been complemented by Buddhist pilgrimage circuits, cultural festivals, and tourism facilitation measures, such as improved safety, better connectivity, and curated thematic travel routes. Track-II diplomacy under BIMSTEC has become more structured, especially through its routine conduct of the BIMSTEC Network of Policy Think Tanks (BNPTT). The seventh edition of this meeting was convened in May 2025 in Kathmandu and focused on ‘Tourism, Culture, and People-to-People Contact’, emphasising these exchanges as integral to regional peace and prosperity. Further strengthening this people-first approach, India hosted the inaugural BIMSTEC Youth Summit in February 2025 as a ‘Bridge for Intra-BIMSTEC Exchange’, gathering over 70 participants, including ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs), artists, and entrepreneurs. These initiatives indicate a growing institutional recognition of lived cultural and social experiences as diplomatic assets. India also launched ‘BODHI’ (which trains 300 youths annually), expanded cultural and sports exchanges, and deepened academic ties through institutions such as the Nalanda University. It has also emphasised humanitarian solidarity and shared hope, as evidenced by the timely relief sent to earthquake-hit Myanmar and its proposal for a BIMSTEC Disaster Management Centre.

India has played a key role in sustaining and expanding this ethos, extending 50 Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)  cultural scholarships and 10 AYUSH fellowships annually to students from the Mekong region, along with regular public health, sustainable farming, and water management workshops.

The MGC is also anchored in civilisational ties and cultural affinity, operationalised into people-focused initiatives through multi-year Action Plans. The 2019–22 Plan envisioned heritage-based exchanges—including textile fairs at the MGC Asian Traditional Textiles Museum in Siem Reap, reciprocal participation in festivals such as Pushkar and Hornbill, and regional media collaborations—to showcase shared traditions and history. Grassroots-level engagement has also been advanced through Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) in CLMV countries, with 38 projects completed since 2015, valued at approximately US$1.9 million. Through successive ministerial meetings – the 10^th in 2019 and the 11^th in 2021 – the MGC sought to integrate people-centric sectors, such as tourism, culture, health, and education, into regional diplomacy, making engagement more tangible across communities and grounding cooperation in trust, shared memory, and everyday experiences. India has played a key role in sustaining and expanding this ethos, extending 50 Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)  cultural scholarships and 10 AYUSH fellowships annually to students from the Mekong region, along with regular public health, sustainable farming, and water management workshops. Additionally, it continues to frame the MGC not merely as a policy platform but as ‘a celebration of our long and rich history of trade, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.’ These exchanges exhibit India’s investment in shared heritage as both an emotional resource and a diplomatic strategy, and have reinforced its identity as both a steward of civilisational ties and a trusted neighbour.

Challenges and Cross-Learning

Despite these efforts, significant gaps remain in making people-to-people diplomacy unerring and effectively resonant. At the ASEAN level, several initiatives lack adequate implementation and suffer from low visibility. The ‘people-centred’ agenda remains non-binding and largely contingent on political will, which results in uneven citizen engagement—especially among youth. Despite multiple connectivity strategies, public awareness remains limited. Many Southeast Asians are inattentive to ASEAN's efforts, and high-level forums rarely address quotidian concerns. BIMSTEC has faced challenges in implementing its commitments. Despite the ambitious goals set in Kathmandu, progress has been sluggish. Obstacles such as visa issues and insufficient infrastructure are hindering travel and student mobility, which in turn affects cultural exchanges and heritage tours. Similarly, the objectives of MGC have also remained largely symbolic. The proposed 20^th anniversary celebration in Siem Reap (2020) was deferred due to COVID-19, and much of its momentum relies on India’s bilateral initiatives, with limited institutional scaffolding for sustained, multilateral people-level engagement. Across all three platforms, a consistent shortfall lies in the elite bias of diplomacy. Track I and II mechanisms engage policymakers and scholars but often leave the broader public unheard. Citizens see highways and festivals but rarely encounter shared storytelling or trust-building efforts. These gaps highlight that diplomacy must centre lived experience, where regional cooperation grows from empathy, shared memory, meaning, and not merely through formal declarations.

Nonetheless, each framework presents valuable lessons. ASEAN’s key strength lies in its institutional depth. The Secretariat, sectoral bodies, and the ASEAN Foundation provide continuity and coherence in people-oriented initiatives. Programmes such as the ASEAN University Network’s credit transfers and quality assurance mechanisms support thousands of student exchanges and enhance educational standards across member states. Between 2014 and 2020, the ASEAN Foundation alone implemented 25 community-focused programmes—reaching over 75,000 people—demonstrating its sustained commitment to grassroots initiatives. This institutional architecture could serve as a valuable model for BIMSTEC and MGC, both of which lack long-term platforms for people-to-people engagement. BIMSTEC also offers innovative practices worth noting. Its experimentation with youth diplomacy—such as the 2025 Youth Summit—and structured Track II dialogues under the BNPTT reflects an early but essential shift toward participatory diplomacy. This widening of the conversation to include younger leaders and practitioners is something ASEAN, despite its maturity, could integrate more actively through regular civil society forums. MGC could also take cues from BIMSTEC's efforts to build a more inclusive framework that allows more voices to be heard, which would complement its strength in providing quick, localised, and tangible assistance. India's QIPs serve as a clear example of affective diplomacy in action. They address community needs directly and help build trust at the local level. These small-scale initiatives, along with lines of credit for local infrastructure, give diplomacy a more personal touch.. ASEAN and BIMSTEC could take inspiration from funding localised cultural grants or social projects that bring everyday lives into regional cooperation.

BIMSTEC might adapt ASEAN’s outreach strategies and scholarship models; ASEAN could fold MGC’s heritage-based initiatives into its youth and tourism programmes. Indeed, the most impactful people-to-people initiatives are those that directly touch and transform everyday lives.

Cultural and emotional connections exist among ASEAN's "One Community" identity, BIMSTEC's Buddhist heritage circuits, and MGC's shared pilgrimage routes, all of which are rooted in common histories. Each can draw inspiration from the others. BIMSTEC might adapt ASEAN’s outreach strategies and scholarship models; ASEAN could fold MGC’s heritage-based initiatives into its youth and tourism programmes. Indeed, the most impactful people-to-people initiatives are those that directly touch and transform everyday lives. By learning from one another’s institutional structures, emotional registers, and grassroots reach, these groupings can move closer to a diplomacy that feels rooted in connection, not just negotiation.

From Soft Power to Shared Purpose

To make this lasting, India must institutionalise these affective ties through investing in stronger people-to-people networks that move beyond transactional diplomacy. This involves nurturing local value chains across the Bay of Bengal to embed cooperation in everyday economic practices and grassroots affiliations. It also requires sustainable, demand-driven, and people-centric infrastructure (such as rural roads, schools, and training hubs) that build trust, deepen community engagement, and strengthen affective dimensions of regional diplomacy along emerging cross-border corridors across BIMSTEC, MGC, and ASEAN. India must further capitalise on ASEAN–BIMSTEC convergences around shared cultural heritage, digital infrastructure, and transport corridors to create more visible, lived forms of regional belonging so that ordinary citizens see themselves not as bystanders but as participants in integration efforts. India is currently making such efforts whereby the India–Myanmar–Thailand highway is being developed with a sense of urgency, drawing upon ancient civilisational routes. However, this initiative must not be viewed merely as strategic artefacts but as channels of emotional, cultural, and community reconnection across the neighbourhood toward a diplomacy that resonates through shared history and lived experiences.

Rajeshwari Dasgupta is a Research Intern at ORF. She is currently pursuing a PhD in International Relations from Presidency University.

Sreeparna Banerjee is an Associate Fellow in the Strategic Studies Programme.

• Neighbourhood
• India
• act east policy
• act east policy india
• asean and india
• asean countries
• bimstec
• bimstec countries
• india neighbouring countries
• india relations with neighbouring countries
• india's neighbourhood policy

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