The revival of SAARC will not come from dramatic diplomatic breakthroughs. Instead, it will emerge through incremental cooperation in education, digital infrastructure, disaster response and trade facilitation. Crucially, the future of South Asian regionalism may depend on a generation that increasingly experiences the region not through borders but through shared digital, economic and cultural networks.
Trade adjustments between major economies inevitably reverberate beyond bilateral channels. Bangladesh’s potential tariff advantages in textiles could redirect labour-intensive supply chains. Pakistan, operating within the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor framework, may use India’s perceived alignment with Washington to advance its own strategic narratives. China itself will interpret these developments within the broader context of great-power competition and recalibrate its economic and strategic posture accordingly.
A more comprehensive lesson about 21st-century youth politics can be learned from the story taking place between Kathmandu and Dhaka. Gen Z has extraordinary mobilization skills. Protests can grow quickly and upend established power structures thanks to social media networks. But mobilization is insufficient on its own. Successful political transformation requires organization, leadership, and institutional strategy. Nepal’s youth built those structures quickly. Bangladesh’s did not.
The move by Pakistan in the Security Council is an indicator of increased apprehension among developing countries about the fact that the fruits of energy transition need to be shared more equitably. The Global South has many mineral-rich countries which usually do not get much economic benefit from extraction while bearing its environmental and social costs.
The ceasefire announcement on February 25 came just over two weeks after China and India agreed to military disengagement in eastern Ladakh, leading to speculation that the India-Pakistan ceasefire declaration and China-India disengagement plans aren't unrelated incidents, write Harsh Mahaseth and Ananya Shukla for South Asia Monitor
Perhaps even more than the BJP, the RSS must be deeply concerned about the present calamity since it can delay the implementation of its Hindutva project yet again, writes Amulya Ganguli for South Asia Monitor
The Parliamentary Committee on Health and Welfare, in its recent report, had suggested that the public expenditure on health needs to be enhanced to at least 2.5 percent of GDP in the next 3 years, much of which should be invested in creating and modernising the strained infrastructure, reports V K Varadarajan for South Asia Monitor
The underlying reason for Bhutan to keep China at an arm’s length is not India’s strategic influence; rather it emanates from a firm belief that opening diplomatic ties with China is against its national interest, writes Thinley for South Asia Monitor
It is likely that under the Biden administration US-India relations will grow stronger and will have more routes to work on a range of issues -- free and open Indo-Pacific, restoring peace in Afghanistan, arms control, countering aggressive behavior of China and climate crisis with stress on multilateralism, writes Indu Saxena for South Asia Monitor
There have also been reports that other areas of Western Bhutan have been gradually encroached by China to secure access to the border with India, writes Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
The region, overall, has gone through a major strategic realignment with the increasing influence of China, and its ties with Pakistan. Also, unlike the 90s, there exists multi-dimensional international cooperation on the issue of Afghanistan today, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor
The Chinese footprint in the South Asian region has been steadily increasing, while that of India is being diluted and all the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations are differently dependent on Beijing for a mix of political, economic, trade and military support, writes Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (retd) for South Asia Monitor
If it’s any solace, this dreadful time has given rise to an unnamed bond among strangers—call it humanity, altruism, empathy—but it’s helping many of us stay afloat, writes Azera Parveen Rahman for South Asia Monitor
While India must resume supplies to its neighbors, there is much that it can also learn from some of their best practices, including Bhutan, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
Pakistan’s 'all-weather friend' China has intensified communication with the Taliban. Afghanistan is very significant for China for Its Belt and Road Initiative, writes Md. Ishtiak Hossain for South Asia Monitor
South Asia - which had the longest period of school closure - could face a learning crisis which will set us back by a decade, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
India's foreign policy mandarins know more than anyone else that altruism does not exist in international relations and diplomacy must be conducted on the basis of realpolitik acting only in pursuit of their self-interest, writes Lt Gen Yash Malhotra (retd) for the South Asia Monitor
But most experts agree that the country can reach ‘herd immunity’ if 70 to 80 percent of the population is fully immunised. That comes to a population of 1.05 billion, for whom 2.10 billion doses are needed, writes Vinod Aggarwal for South Asia Monitor
It would be interesting to know how American security experts view the threat perceptions from the numerous affiliates of the bodies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, some of whom target India, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
