Relevance : GS Paper II (International Relations)
- India must work towards South Asian integration.
- South Asia is one of the world’s least integrated regions.
- Problems:
- India has ideational disinclination towards its neighborhood.
- Neighborhood has not been seen as an opportunity by India.
- There has been a steady decline in India’s influence and goodwill in the region.
- Persistent absence of a coherent and well-planned regional policy
- Present scenario
- Recently India made grand foreign policy commitments to neighboring countries.
- However, it tried to interfere in the internal affairs of Nepal and Sri Lanka.
- India seemed clueless on dealing with political crisis in the Maldives.
- India’s refugee policy on Rohingyas went against its own traditional practices.
- Arrival of an India-friendly Ibrahim Mohamed Solih regime in Male.
- Return of India friendly Wickremesinghe as Sri Lankan Prime Minister
- Nepal has reached out to India to put an end to the acrimony.
- Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh are also positively disposed towards India.
- Relationship with Pakistan continues to be testy and directionless.
- What should India do?
- India must shed its aggression and deal with diplomatic finesse.
- It must not meddle in the domestic politics of neighbor countries.
- India must follow up on its promises to its neighbors.
- India must invest where China falls short.
- India must invest a great deal more in soft power promotion.
- It must also look for convergence of interests with China.
- There needs to be better regional trading arrangements.
- India should construct border infrastructure and ease restrictions on border trade.
- There should be attempts at forging multilateral arrangements.
- India has a real opportunity today to re-calibrate its neighborhood relations.
