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With both the goods FTA and services FTA in place, India is well set on the path of a comprehensive economic partnership with ASEAN. India, whose services sector contributes about 55% to the country's GDP, has been keen to sign the services FTA with ASEAN as it will help the Indian companies tap the ASEAN markets easily.

The potential welfare gains arising from the services agreement appear to be in India's favour as well as for member economies of ASEAN. The policy focus of both ASEAN and the individual member nations has been on merchandise trade liberalisation, and on inducing foreign investment-led transfer of technology, which has so far resulted in low regional integration in services.

Amidst the challenges like less liberalised service sector of certain ASEAN members, there exists an opportunity for India to harness the gains from trade in services in the wake of the comparative advantage that it enjoys in certain services.

India holds a primary interest in the Freedom of Navigation through the South China Sea. It also has an economic interest in exploring hydrocarbon resources in the area. But how effective are India's role as the balancing actor that the ASEAN nations seek?

Experts at a seminar in Chennai felt that 'rogue Sates' like North Korea could alter the security architecture as well as the geo-strategic approach in Asia. And, in light of this uncertainty, evolving ties between nations like India, Japan, South Korea and Australia gain significance. It also stressed the need for Australia-India ties to be treated as a stand-alone development.

Keeping in mind the historical and civilisational ties of India and Bangladesh and their geographic proximity, ORF-Kolkata undertook a year-long study on India-Bangladesh connectivity, using extensive field visits and interviews with relevant stakeholders. The findings of the study were collated in a report, titled, India-Bangladesh Connectivity: Possibilities and Challenges, and released just before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Participants at a Consultative International Workshop on India-Bangladesh Connectivity: Possibilities and Challenges, organised in Kolkata, emphasised the need for a common transport policy for the entire region.

At the release event of the report on India-Bangladesh Connectivity: Possibilities and Challenges, participants stressed the need for leveraging the positive political climate and emphasised pro-active role of state governments in cross-border connectivity.

The main objective of the Dialogue was to explore the security perspectives of India and Bangladesh, with special focus on the threat of terrorism in the region

Indian diplomacy seems to be drawing a blank when it comes to regional cooperation involving fine diplomacy and seasoned statecraft. The recent events relating to India's attempts towards getting natural gas from Bangladesh and Myanmar and the negative response from Bangladesh suggest that it is unlikely to obtain any gesture of

Considering the great improvement in India's relations with Bangladesh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his visit to Dhaka, should unilaterally offer to convert half of the $1 billion soft loan given to Bangladesh earlier into a grant and make the rest interest-free as a gesture of goodwill and friendship.

Farooq Sobhan, President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute and former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, addressed the ORF Faculty on March 12, 2008. In his speech, he stressed on building a strong relationship between India and Bangladesh by encouraging greater connectivity and investments. Both countries, he felt, should leave behind the baggage of mistrust and neglect and recognise that they can gain much through a closer relationship.

The use of past to pitch present-day India-China interaction is not a very helpful strategy because the situations, political entities were different and the role of Buddhism was more complex than acknowledged, according to Dr. Tansen Sen of the City University New York.

China and India need to do more than repeatedly declaring outcomes of meetings as 'successful' and 'positive'. Talking things out straight will no doubt lead to friction and diplomatic parleys but at least it will be an enterprise in reality.

India and China have recognised their comparative and cooperative strengths - even while acknowledging their shared concerns and competitive edge, vis-a-vis each other, and when pitted against the rest of the world. Not surprisingly, the strategic community, in general, and policy makers, in particular, have been keenly engaged in following the developments related to the countries over the part four decades.

India and China do differ radically on the kind of Asian layout for the future. India work at an inclusive approach as opposed to China's exclusivist approach which appears directed against India, US and Japan.

It is fashionable in China today to speak of a 'new model' of great power relations, indeed of international relations as a whole. Applying this approach to India-China relations offers some interesting insights. Both at an abstract and practical level, the three propositions that constitute this 'new model' appear unexceptionable.

In the backdrop of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India, a roundtable discussion was organized by ORF on 1 December 2006 to assess the outcome of the visit and its impact on the relations between the two countries. The discussion focused on how India-China relationship will evolve in the wake of the visit.

India has seldom been demanding on strategic issues. At the strategic level, one requires a long memory and a longer foresight and vision. With China, we need to balance our strategic, security and economic relationships.

Prime Minister Modi has succeeded in adding a new zest and meaning to India-China relations with the visit of the Chinese President. However, it is evident that the full potential in trade and other areas of cooperation would not be realised unless peace and tranquility is restored on the border.

A great game is evolving among India, China and the US in the Asia-Pacific region and the triangular relationship will be the most important relationship of the 21st century, Dr. Stephen Burges said.

The hurried sense of negotiations taking place between the EU and India is becoming a cause of worry. The Indian government should tread cautiously so as to safeguard the domestic concerns and public interests at large. If structured well, the FTA can push up India's growth for the next decade.

India's deepening engagement with the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Israel could also moderate New Delhi's diplomatic ties with Tehran. India-Iran relations were at their peak during then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Tehran in 2001 and then Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's visit to India in 2003.

India's ties with Iran have clearly been strained by the latter's tumultuous relationship with the United States, with the Iran factor equally imposing constraints on India-US relations. India has had to walk a diplomatic tightrope in balancing its relationships with these countries.

India and Iran are not in the place they deserve to be in the global order, and they can play a more important and significant role by enhancing their cooperation, according to Mr. Ali Akbar Javanfekr, presidential advisor for press affairs to Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran.

Displaying a shift from the previous administration, the Narendra Modi government has initiated high-level political engagement with Israel. Modi met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, sent his Home Minister to Tel Aviv, and received former President Shimon Peres in Delhi recently.

His Excellency Mr. Akitaka Saiki, Ambassador of Japan to India, addressed an eminent gathering at the ORF campus in New Delhi on June 29, 2011. In his lecture, Mr. Saiki outlined the huge potential for cooperation between India and Japan to build a strong partnership in the context of the rapidly changing security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region. This is the text of his lecture and the proceedings of the event.

Since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the Indian prime minister and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, have been instrumental in what has been the most dramatic leap forward in India-Japan bilateral relations. While the two countries have made strides in strengthening cooperation in recent years, there are limitations that need to be overcome. This brief examines the challenges that remain in the relationship, including their sub-par bila

As leading Asian democracies, India and Japan are perfectly poised to stake their claim in the sphere of geopolitical influence by increasing regional cooperation with countries like Myanmar

Experts identified trade in hydrocarbons and uranium as the two important cogs of bilateral energy cooperation

Despite the deep divisions within the Maldivian polity, which often gets reflected in Parliament, Maldives offered a near-full House when Singh became the first visiting Head of Government to address the People's Majlis (Parliament).

India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

The reality of India-Myanmar land connectivity is increasingly becoming a possibility as militancy and insurgency are on the decline in the region, says Mr. Rajeev Bhattacharyya, a journalist who has lived with several insurgent groups in Myanmar and India?s North East.

In an important advance in the bilateral security cooperation between Delhi and Yangon, two naval vessels from Myanmar have arrived in Vishakhapatnam for joint exercises. While India's naval diplomacy with Myanmar is headed in the right direction, Delhi needs to step up the pace of cooperation.

The 41 km India-Nepal pipeline, designed to supply cost-effective and environment-friendly petroleum products to the landlocked the nation, is the first trans-national pipeline in the SAARC region. This initiative represents a win-win outcome for both the countries which will also enhance regional connectivity and economic development across the region.

The just-concluded round of India-Pakistan dialogue (July 27) was an opportunity for both the countries to articulate their positions on two critical challenges facing the region, terrorism and Afghanistan.

At the Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif meeting, it was agreed that the incidents across the LoC would be taken up by the DGMOs of both the countries. This seems to be the only worthwhile outcome of the meeting, though it remains to be seen how effective this arrangement would be. Sharif also assured the Indian Prime Minister that the most favoured nation protocol would be extended to India in order to facilitate trade between the two countries.

Ceasefire along LoC has not really solved any of India's problems.There exists a dire need to look beyond the existing CBMs of providing advance warnings for military exercises and ballistic missile tests which are relatively "high level" issues.

As in the Shimla Summit between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, nothing came out of the Delhi meeting between Dr. Manmohan singh and Zardari on April 8. However, it is now clear that focus has shifted to official discussions in the coming months and the eventual visit of Dr Manmohan Singh to Pakistan.

The insistent demands today that India adopt an inflexible and hard policy will only undermine the larger strategy. Were an alternative strategy and tactical mix on offer, it would be something worth considering, but the only items on the menu offered by the chicken hawks are jingoistic slogans and war cries.

While 1947 may have liberated India and Pakistan from the colonial yolk, the two countries have become slaves to the historical baggage they carry. It's therefore important for both sides to unburden themselves in whatever ways possible.

It is important for both countries to think outside the box and create constituencies of peace outside New Delhi and Islamabad, especially in the two Punjabs. While Punjabi tarka can not be the core of India-Pakistan relations, it must not be overlooked either.

During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh¿s early-December 2005 visit to Moscow, India and Russia signed landmark agreements to further cement their defence cooperation that dates back to almost half a century. These include an agreement on the defence of intellectual property rights that prevents either side from using technologies received from the other without special permission, joint construction of a multi-purpose transport plane

India-Russia defence relations have already become mature which normally comes in alliance politics like anglo-saxon model or very special relationship like US-Israel. Very few parallel example can be found in case of other countries like the ones that Russia has developed with India.