Belgium views India as an opportunity to reduce its economic dependence on China and limit vulnerability to developments in the United States. India offers scale, growth, industrial capacity and ambition, while Belgium offers technology, specialised expertise, logistics and access to the European market.
India has its own legacy of maternal peacebuilding, from Jijabai to the Meira Paibi. What we lack is the language to celebrate and institutionalize these contributions. Recognizing mothers as peacebuilders is not just a cultural insight; it is a practical necessity for societies striving for harmony.
The numerical divide between the two camps is widening significantly, in favour of the West. The Artemis Accords added 19 nations in 2024, and 7 in 2025; and has already added 12 signatories in 2026 so far. By contrast, the ILRS has expanded at a much slower, tightly controlled pace. It counts 13 sovereign nations as members.
The timing of the present diplomatic initiative is also noteworthy. Ajit Doval’s visit to Beijing comes ahead of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi and could create space for political direction at the highest level, including a possible meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping.
India understands the needs of Bhutan and is equally willing to diversify the relationship beyond hydropower. During his last visit, Modi showed India’s intent towards the diversification of bilateral relations, writes Alakh Ranjan for South Asia Monitor
Gandhi was an engineer at heart. He improvised and built equipment like better snake-catching tools, small cotton-spinning wheel (takli) and chappals (sandals) from used tires. In 1929, he even instituted an INR one lakh prize (INR 20 crores in today’s value; 2.6 times bigger than the Nobel Prize) for the design of a modern charkha (spinning wheel), writes Anil K Rajvanshi for South Asia Monitor
Trump realized that the draft deal, if signed, would be labeled a surrender to the Taliban, which would be politically damaging for him. Another reason could be that he never really wanted to meet the Taliban, but wanted to showcase the peace efforts made, and place indirect pressure on them through the subterfuge writes Lt Gen PC Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
With India's growing political and strategic interest in the continent, and inclination to leverage its diaspora as an instrument of soft power, it’s natural for New Delhi to establish a beachhead in Somalia, that straddles the Horn of Africa, the source of the Nile and a gate to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, through which tens of thousands of vessels pass through Somali waters every year in what is one of the world’s busiest sea-trading lanes, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor
Delhi has not yet made an official statement, but legitimizing the Taliban at a Camp David ceremony would have had an adverse impact on India’s strategic interests in the region, writes C Uday Bhaskar for South Asia Monitor
For an outsider, the NRC process has come to be perceived as anti-Muslim. This is drawing the line along religious identity—a factor to which the indigenous Assamese Muslim community does not agree, but whose voice has been largely ignored in this massive debate, writes Azera Parveen Rahman for South Asia Monitor
Trump ordering withdrawal of some troops is very much on the cards. The situation in Afghanistan over the next few months is unpredictable, with the internal turmoil and economic situation in Pakistan also deteriorating, writes Lt Gen Prakash Chand Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Sri Lanka, being an Indian Ocean island nation strategically located at the international maritime crossroads, has significant diplomatic influence in the West due its Christian community, write Srimal Fernando and Mizly Nizar for South Asia Monitor
The creation of a CDS cannot (and must not) be an isolated action because it carries with it a whole new ecosystem that can transform India’s national security paradigm. writes Admiral Arun Prakash (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Why can’t India begin by addressing the Balochistan problem at international forums, especially the heavy-handed suppression and continuing human rights abuses the people of that province face?, writes Nilova Roy Chaudhury for South Asia Monitor
Pakistan's only real option is to provoke large scale communal conflict simultaneously in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kashmir, which can spread to other regions. That can be blamed on the ruling dispensation's 'anti-Muslim' policies, against which many voices have been raised in India, writes Subir Bhaumik for South Asia Monitor
Showing political will at the highest level is of little help unless it works at ground level. The government must take Kashmiri people, particularly the youth, into confidence to instill buoyancy into every faith-filled Kashmiri's heart, writes Debasish Bhattacharyya for South Asia Monitor
Hundreds of dengue-affected patients are receiving treatment in different public and private hospitals in Dhaka, but hospitals are full to the brim and facing challenges to handle the crisis due to lack of sufficient equipment and manpower, writes Akmal Hossain for South Asia Monitor
There is a clear sense that something is missing in the present relationship between the Indian and Nepali governments. Both should work to develop harmony and trust and mitigate the trust deficit, writes Gaurab Shumsher Thapa for South Asia Monitor
Pakistan will try to enhance terrorist activities not only in J&K but in all of India. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence may activate and instruct its sleeper cells to carry out terrorist activities in communally sensitive places so that communal riots erupt in the country, writes J K Verma for South Asia Monitor
