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As a precursor to the wider project of energy cooperation between Central Asia and South Asia, India and Pakistan must take baby steps towards energy trading as part of their ongoing trade liberalisation. Petro-products delivered by Indian refineries in the north and west to Punjab and Sindh regions would save Pakistan at least $14 per barrel of oil.

In countering India’s efforts to dominate South Asian waters, China may be seeking a grand bargain: allow each side control over their respective littorals – the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea – and the maintenance of respective constabulary presences

Moving beyond the anti-China rhetoric, US has attempted to enhance its diplomacy efforts towards Southeast Asia as a whole.

In its June 2004 issue, Jane¿s Intelligence Review, has carried a report on the "Workshop on International Terrorism in South East Asia and its likely Implications for South Asia"

India should be watching Mr John Kerry's trip to Asia with interest considering that the US and China have just held a dialogue on South Asia, even as the US has refused to hold a bilateral dialogue with India on East Asia in the last year.

By following in Denmark's footsteps, India can set a precedent for South Asian countries with regard to same-sex adoption.

After the marginalisation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) since 2016 owing to tensions between India and Pakistan, a search for alternative regional collaborations led India to Bimstec.

To check non-tariff barriers in the south Asian region, India being the largest economy in the region must take the lead, but other partners must extend cooperation and come together on a common platform.

Maritime power projection, and not sea denial, is the answer to China’s creeping assertiveness in South Asia.

The unresolved India-China border dispute brings China closer to the Indian Ocean in every political and geo-strategic calculation of nations like Maldives and Sri Lanka, even though they are not as close to both the 'Asian giants' as the rest of India's South Asian neighbours.

Ties between India and Japan are historical and enduring. In the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), the leaders of the two countries have married their respective countries’ “Act East” Policy and “Free and Open Indo Pacific” aspirations. The AAGC is envisioned to provide a renewed opportunity for partnership where both regions can complement each other’s development and growth.  The AAGC will bring out the economic gains for Afr

To improve South Asian regional cooperation, Modi has three options. The first is to focus on a two-speed Saarc. The second is to build on transregional institutions like the BIMSTEC. However, it is the third way -- unilateral action -- that offers Modi the greatest opportunity. For example, Modi has already proposed to build a Saarc satellite for use by its neighbours.

India's Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi, has set a healthy precedent for all of South Asia to follow by inviting all Neighbourhood leaders for his inauguration, including Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

China aims to use a Buddhist narrative to push forward its geopolitical and geoeconomic ambitions in the South Asian region

Pakistan has for long been grappling with several fundamental problems without any visible signs of overcoming them. Its economic, social and political indicators are amongst the lowest in the world. In its conflicts with India, which it perceives as its sworn enemy, all its tactics have proven to be of insignificant success, as has its intrusive attempts to control Kabul so as to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan. The successive governments' m

With the good news from the 17th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) meeting in the Maldives about the future effective implementation of the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement, trade relations among member-countries will get a big boost.

The situation now seems to be ripe to reorient the relationship by instilling new foreign policy mechanisms that can be helpful for not only the US an

The south Asian region has been a region of disjointed congruity for decades. Efforts at integrating the countries that make up the region have been in place through a variety of mechanisms such as diplomatic efforts, regional and sub-regional organisations.

The Maldives became the second country in South Asia, after Pakistan, to enter into a free trade agreement with China. The Yameen government pushed the FTA through the nation's Parliament, the Majlis, stealthily, with the opposition not attending the parliamentary session.

India is commonly — and rightly — considered as a reluctant democracy promoter. But while sceptical about the motives behind Western attempts to promote democracy and about the effects of their democracy promotion efforts, India has since the mid-2000s moved warily to involve itself in “democracy assistance”. This article argues that New Delhi has engaged in these activities in the context of a wider shift in strategy, in parallel with t

There is an urgent need for sustainable and resilient food systems to guarantee sustainable diets that are nutritious and aligned with the evolving ec

On April 3 this year, a one-day conference was organised in Washington by the South Asian Studies department of the John Hopkins University. One of the sessions was on Pakistan, specifically on the safety of its nuclear installations.

The combination of dangerous delusions, soaring ambitions and a fatal nuclear obsession could spark another round of strategic brinkmanship in South Asia, with disastrous consequences for regional security. Navy is supposed to be the new domain for another round of brinkmanship

Pakistan’s strategic calculations in Afghanistan have backfired, leaving it entangled in the complexities of the South Asian geopolitics.

India should turn focus from Central Asia to South Asia or Indian Ocean Region

India has to be realistic enough to understand that heightened engagement between India and China in BRICS or any other multilateral fora has serious limitations - limitations imposed by the underlying Chinese objective of keeping India bogged down in South Asia as a regional power.

South Asia comprises of eight countries-Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Except for India and to an extent, Pakistan given our obsession with it, we know very little about other countries of South Asia.

President Ghani's visit to India marks a radical shift in the policy of Afganistan towards India and is a game-changer in South Asia.

The need for regional integration is now BIMSTEC countries to make up for the deficit created by a crippled SAARC in South Asia

The new Indian approach to Nepal, and to the South Asian region, form a core of the Modi government's foreign and security policy. The goal is to bind them closer to India through a web of economic relationships. To implement this vision, Modi also needs to untangle political issues that have bedevilled relations between India and them.

India’s Northeast has often been described as the region where South Asia and Southeast Asia meet. Indeed, sharing much of its border with neighbouring countries, the northeastern states are economically and culturally integrated with Southeast Asia. This brief examines the role of India’s Northeast in strengthening the country’s relations with its partners in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC

While the old thinking on Pakistan is back in the US, the Afghan government is being seen as a hindrance in US' South Asia policy.

Pakistan is now more focussed on its internal issues and this gives India more space to reach a compromise with its neighbour. Pakistan is also no longer in the same competitive position as it was in the 1990, says Dr. Moeed Yusuf, Head of the South Asia Studies Programme at the United States Institute of Peace.

Myanmar and Bangladesh are active partners in India’s Act-east policy, projects envisaging connectivity between the Southeast with South Asia and countering insurgency in north-east

SAARC conjures up an image of jamborees and no results. The South Asian Association of Regional cooperation with its seven members ( India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh) remains one of the most dysfunctional trade blocs and there is hardly any freedom of movement of goods, services and people. The next (13th) SAARC summit is going to be held in Dhaka in the beginning of January 2005.

India has said that the regional efforts to counter terrorism in South Asia continue to face significant challenges though there are various SAARC frameworks on suppression of terrorism since 1987.

The SAARC energy agreement signed may have given some hope for the realisation of energy cooperation in South Asia. But, it needs to be understood that an overarching agreement has little impact on project-based cooperation, owing to the centrality of India in the South Asian geography.

The 17th SAARC Summit was held at Addu Atoll, Maldives on the 10th and 11th of November 2011. The venue, in the words of the Bhutanese Prime Minister, reflected the vastness of South Asia.

The failure of SAARC to nurture cooperation in South Asia has pushed regional players to search for an alternative.  BIMSTEC, grouping the nations in the Bay of Bengal region, is popularly favoured as the viable option. Two decades since its inception, however, BIMSTEC’s successes have been minimal. How workable is BIMSTEC as an option for pursuing regional cooperation in South Asia? Are SAARC and BIMSTEC competitors or do they complement each

SAARC is nearly 30 years old yet is still weak. Today, South Asia is one of the world's least integrated regions. Members have weak economic ties, issues of national identity persist, and political tensions remain. What lies ahead for SAARC?

By the standards of electoral practices in South Asia, incidents of violence in Bangladesh’s elections cannot be viewed as excessive. The allegations of malpractices cannot be dismissed outright since no election in Bangladesh has been free from these aberrations and violence.

China¿s decision in the 1980's to supply to Pakistan nuclear weapons technology and missiles capable of delivering nukes over long distances was intended to bind India down in a south Asian strategic impasse and constrict India's larger role in Asia and the world. China achieved only partial success in that objective.

Improved infrastructure has a critical role in enabling a nation to apply military power. On the India-China border, there is a clear military imbalance-not just in terms of equipment and forces on the border but also in terms of the physical infrastructure. This paper will compare the infrastructure as it exists today, while identifying the gaps.

Lt Gen (retd.) David Barno, Director, Center for North-East and South Asia (NESA) at the National Defense University, Washington, D.C. along with Col (retd.) Jack Gill, also of the same center, visited ORF on 18 April 2008. LTG Barno made a presentation on "Situation in Afghanistan in the Context of Insurgency and Changing Nature of War".

Studies indicate that the sudden deaths among young adults have little to do with the COVID-19 vaccination and a lot more to do with one’s lifestyle

In South Asia, Sri Lanka — with its geographically unique position in the Indian Ocean, and with a strong BRI partnership established during the pre

Zooming out and looking at South Asian geopolitics, India appears to be reaching out, repairing and resetting relations with several of its smaller ne

Sri Lanka, one of the leading countries in the South Asian region, has now descended into a crisis due to flawed policies. Will it be able to undo the