India’s Reckoning With Its Dangerous Neighborhood

Nirupama Rao

Source Link

While the recent eruption of unrest in Nepal is not uncommon for a region that remains in perpetual crisis, it does represent a dangerous new trend. For India, the challenge is not only to maintain strategic autonomy, but to promote its vision of a more inclusive, rules-based, and connected South and Southeast Asia.

NEW DELHI – Although instability is endemic to South and Southeast Asia, it is becoming increasingly dangerous both for India’s neighbors and India itself. This was reflected most recently in the violent unrest in Nepal. But that crisis is hardly an isolated case. In Bangladesh, directly to India’s east, the same tensions that led to the overthrow of the government in 2024 remain unresolved. And to the southeast, Thailand is reeling from the court-ordered removal of its prime minister and a series of recent border clashes with Cambodia.