A significant factor that emerged after India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan in May 2025 was the strain in the India-US relationship under the Trump administration, driven by aggressive tariff disputes and policy friction. This indirectly accelerated India’s push to diversify partnerships, prompting New Delhi to lean more pragmatically into closer economic and strategic ties with middle powers such as Australia.
India and China need not share identical geopolitical visions to agree that a stable border, prosperous border communities and transparent rules are preferable to uncertainty. The most useful measure of Nathu La’s success may therefore be not how many tonnes cross the pass, but how routinely two neighbouring systems learn to work together.
December could therefore become much more than Victory Month. It could become a test of whether Bangladesh's next chapter will be written through democratic accommodation or another round of political vengeance. The danger is that a leader returning to face her past could inadvertently reopen the country's deepest wounds.
Russia wants to use the Far East to diversify away from the West, but it risks becoming excessively dependent on China. That is why Southeast Asia, India, Japan and other Asian partners matter to Moscow as they provide Russia with a wider Asian field and fallback and reduces the risk that Russia’s entire eastern pivot becomes a one-way dependence on Beijing.
Strong-arming Bangladesh into toeing its prescribed policy positions is part of the Biden Administration’s wider external agenda of promoting the liberal values of democracy and human rights as the centerpiece of its foreign policy. But the real problem doesn’t lie in policy postures, but rather in the way these policies are being executed.
On matters of foreign policy too, Nasheed is critical of China and favors the ‘India first’ policy, while Yameen has had positive relations with China and his party has recently protested against the Indian military presence in Maldives under the slogan ‘India Out’.
There has been discussion of alternate supply chains being created in India, Indonesia and Vietnam but supply chain issues originating from China are not going to go away in a hurry.
South Asia has no strong trade ties within the region, unlike many parts of Asia, and more particularly the developed parts of Asia, namely Southeast Asia and East Asia. South Asia, therefore, has to formulate its own macroeconomic policies to sustain growth keeping in mind global economic trends.
The Hindus entered cricket due to their long-standing social and business rivalry with the Parsis. The first Hindu club, the Bombay Union, was formed in 1866. Muslim cricket began with the Luxmani and Tyebjee families, who helped establish a Muslim cricket club in 1883.
Wife battering is universal in Bangladesh in almost all homes. However, this increases manifold during and after cyclones. There is a breakdown of social and familial infrastructure and livelihood patterns and violence increases with economic stress and anxiety.
Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) need to have policy responses to ensure checks and balances against generative AIs. The top-down policy approach may focus on banning the use of generative AIs. But participatory and adaptive approaches focus on developing policies that could accept the use of generative AIs in varying degrees, with the realisation that generative AIs are here to stay.
What is painful is the inability of civil society groups in the state to intervene during this critical time since the contending groups are not ready to negotiate with each other. However, one must not lose faith in the civil society which is based in Manipur's immediate neighbouring states like Nagaland, Mizoram, and Assam.
The Muslim Personal Law Board is committing the same mistake by opposing the UCC as it did during the discourse on the abhorrent Muslim practice of instantaneous triple talaq without realising its far-reaching consequences.
Macron and Modi should shun transactional diplomacy that engages in multi-billion dollar agreements for military fighter jets and machinery, nuclear reactors and pharmaceutical products. Instead, they should embrace some transformational diplomacy to make the planet sustainable again.
Russia’s proposal to establish Sri Lanka’s first nuclear power plant comes on the heels of the completion of a similar nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, which has paved the path for Russia to play a larger role in South Asian geopolitics.
In recent years India has been prioritising regional integration among South Asian countries, excepting Pakistan. As per the joint vision statement between Nepal and India in April last year, the two countries agreed to expand sub-regional cooperation in the power sector among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN)
Climate crisis is a lesser word to describe the transformative shifts that are taking place in weather conditions across the Global South affecting mostly countries like Pakistan in South Asia. Attitudes of society need to change towards women. Societal attitudes, traditional norms and cultural practices create entrenched gender disparities that hinder women’s participation in development plans and in survival strategies devised to save them in the post-disaster period.
From Modi's standpoint, the visit unfolded precisely as he desired. The exceptional reception he received from the leader of the free world, less than a year before facing the billion-strong Indian electorate, serves as a significant boost for him.
It is high time the Nepalese government strengthens its diplomatic muscle and stands up strongly for the legal rights of its citizens working overseas.
