Relations between India and neighbouring countries in the region remain in a state of flux largely because of the governments of these countries.
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena/The Hindu

Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s decision to travel to Beijing first before his visit to India and Bangladesh demanding the extradition of its former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are being viewed as acts of assertion of the two countries in South Asia that have so far been exceedingly sensitive to Indian concerns on almost all issues in the neighbourhood.

This comes on the heels of Sri Lanka handing over to its Navy the Indian fishing boats that were apprehended while illegally fishing in Sri Lankan waters recently and the Maldives signing a series of strategic cooperation agreements with China earlier this year. On November 13, the National People’s Power government in Sri Lanka ordered that 13 Indian fishing boats be handed over to the Sri Lankan Navy for its use.

Oli claimed that he did not receive an invitation from India and hence decided to visit China. This is in contrast to Hasina who, after her election, waited for nearly six months for an invitation from India. Till that time, she declined to visit another country. The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) asserted that Oli’s “decision to visit China is a reflection of Nepal’s independent foreign policy and not a gambit of ‘card diplomacy’”.

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Speaking to The Hindu, former Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, who is also the leader of the Opposition in Nepal’s parliament, took exception to Oli’s decision and said that the Prime Minister was playing the “China card”.

Former Nepal Prime Minister and Nepal Socialist Party leader Baburam Bhattarai described as “unfortunate” and “embarrassing” the “public spat” about the Prime Minister’s first visit. Referring to Prachanda’s statement, he said: “Additionally, when a former revolutionary degenerates into a petty opportunist politician and indulges in the dirty manoeuvring for personal power, it is all the more disgusting. In the public eye their public accusations against their political rivals having played a particular foreign ‘card’ is just like ‘the pot calling the kettle black’,” he said, adding that the national interest of Nepal was above the interest of any Party or leader.

Nepal “cannot drift away from the age-old policy and practice of non-alignment and good relations with both the neighbours. The sequence of foreign visits is just a transactional issue based on mutual convenience and a necessity,” he added.

The CPN-UML party condemned Prachanda’s statement and claimed that his outburst was a blatant breach of diplomatic protocol. The “remarks undermine the delicate balance Nepal maintains with its two friendly neighbours, India and China, both of whom are part of Nepal’s development and prosperity… Foreign policy is not a matter for petty political squabbling,” the party said, and added that the party reiterates its “commitment to maintaining Nepal’s balanced relations with both India and China”.

There are other irritants in the India-Nepal relationship. One is the problem with Gorkha recruits from Nepal in the Indian Army. Earlier, after India introduced the Agneepath (short-service recruitment) scheme, Nepal adopted a policy to not allow the recruitment of its citizens as soldiers into the Indian Army. A news report on News18.com stated that the number of Nepali Gorkhas in active service has dwindled. Although the Indian Army chief was expected to hold discussions with the Nepali leader during his five-day visit from November 21, the issue is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

India-Bangla relationship

The India-Bangladesh relationship took a turn for the worse following the June 2024 uprising, which unseated Prime Minister Hasina. Hasina fled to India and has been in New Delhi since then, and the new Bangladesh leadership has accused her of indulging in acts of destabilising Bangladesh while in India. The Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, told The Hindu that the government would formally request India to extradite Sheikh Hasina to stand trial in Bangladesh.

A second issue that has grown to become an irritant in the India-Bangladesh relationship involves an Indian corporate entity. A court in Bangladesh on November 20 ordered an enquiry panel to review the power deals that the country made with the Indian conglomerate, the Adani group. From early this year, the opposition in Bangladesh has claimed that the power price is too high. It asked the Sheikh Hasina government to re-examine the deal. The Hasina government refused to do so.

The Adani business house is seen as being close to the ruling BJP government. The Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake too had made comments against the power purchase deal with an Adani Group company in his country ahead of the Presidential election in September 2024. After the election, he or his party, the National People’s Power, are yet to make any statement on the issue.

Regardless of the highs and lows in its relationship with neighbouring countries, India remains an important ally for all countries in the region and is engaged in several infrastructure and security architecture-related issues in each of them. Although multilateral fora such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) are barely functional, bilateral arrangements are working better in the region. Despite some friction with the Maldives after Mohamed Muizzu was elected President in September 2023, it is India that has promised budgetary support to the country at a time of its extreme need.

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As with Bangladesh, India’s relationship with Nepal is deep and multi-faceted. “The transition in Nepal [signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2006] from war to peace and from royal absolutism to republican democracy would not have happened without India’s mediation and support,” notes the academic Constantino Xavier. He characterised the first trilateral power transaction from Nepal to Bangladesh via India as something that was “dreamt about for decades but denied. Now finally [it is] a reality.” He added that this was “also an example of how the bet on infrastructure and economic interdependence enhances India’s regional power and reputation.”

South Asian geopolitical experts believe that India’s vast and deep engagement in the region and the strong people-to-people relationships, which have stood the test of time, cannot be undone because of the governments in these countries. “These are civilisational ties. There will always be problems in any relationship. These problems have been overcome in the past. They will be in the future too,” a serving diplomat said.