While Washington and New Delhi seek to strengthen bilateral ties with Colombo, Beijing has strategically engaged with the political forces that control the government. By engaging directly with actors at the core of Sri Lanka’s governance, Beijing appears to be signalling its strategic intent—projecting influence and reinforcing ideological ties.
Some analysts accuse the EU of double-standards arguing that the EU has been condemning Taliban policies since they assumed power, but were now holding direct discussions with them. Such meetings undermine the EU's credibility as a defender of human rights and democratic values.
Despite the narrative of the Pakistani state, Mahrang Baloch’s international recognition grew through 2024. Time magazine included her in its TIME100 Next list of emerging influential figures, citing her advocacy against enforced disappearances while the BBC named her to its 100 Women list.
Great powers realise the strategic value of small island states - refuelling facilities, logistics hubs, electronic listening posts, maritime surveillance nodes, diplomatic partnerships and access to vast EEZs. Their influence derives more from geographic position and political choice than from demographic size. Seychelles exemplifies this reality.
However, India, China, and other regional actors have yet to establish a firm position on the Rohingya repatriation process and peace talks to end the crisis in Myanmar. While the US is strongly supporting Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue, China and India’s geopolitical and geoeconomic interests in Myanmar have left Bangladesh to manage the Rohingya crisis alone.
Kolkata-based Bangladeshi environmental activist Natasha Ahmed spoke about her cross-border marriage and the challenges she faces living in India with her husband and children. Her sister is married to a man of Pakistani origin. They face many complications meeting each other’s families due to the visa restrictions between India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The data for South Asia shows that Maldives is the most globally integrated country in the region followed by Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan in terms of the average percentage of exports that formed part of the global value chain during the period 2019-2021.
Women in Bangladesh often have limited access to financial services, which can make it difficult for them to cope with climate change impacts such as floods, droughts, or cyclones. Digital financial products such as mobile banking and digital savings accounts can help to overcome these barriers and increase financial inclusion among women.
This overbearing numbers-driven outlook has, so far, defined policy on international education. However, if India-Australia relations are to reflect a genuine partnership, the narrative needs to shift from transactional to transformational. This requires that the very purpose behind international education is dramatically rethought and altered.
Karachi was the first Pakistani city to benefit from nuclear energy after KANUPP was connected to the grid. The inauguration of K-2 and now K-3 is a milestone in Pakistan’s quest to increase the share of clean nuclear energy.
If US-Pakistan ties were to deteriorate further, Islamabad has limited options since Beijing in recent months has clearly shown that it will assist Pakistan in dealing with its economic problems only up to a point.
There has been an outpouring of support for ethnic minorities among protesters of the regime, particularly among the younger generation, who believe that a lasting peace in Myanmar can only be achieved if it includes all of Myanmar's citizens, regardless of class, ethnicity, or religious affiliation. This shift in empathy has also altered long-held perceptions of the Rohingya.
Such deliberations around the themes of interfaith harmony, pluralism, diversity, and solidarity bring hope, and perhaps signify the need and readiness among Indians to start reconsidering their nation’s pluralist legacy.
The first proactive approach for Pakistan should be to restore peaceful, friendly relations with India. Prime Minister Modi is fully focused on developing India industrially and economically and a war with Pakistan would be his last option. India and Pakistan are spending excessive resources on building their military warfare due to mutual suspicion. This helps neither India nor Pakistan.
India offers the opportunity to interconnect the Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal electricity supply industries. The possibility of using Indian power infrastructure for electricity trade between Nepal and Bangladesh is another facet of India's neighborhood engagement.
While the I2U2 – often referred to as the Middle Eastern Quad -- grouping is a strong illustration of changing landscape of the Middle East, and India's strong ties with all the other countries which are part of the grouping, the India-UAE-France trilateral is interesting because while all three countries have robust relations with the US, there are foreign policy divergences on a number of issues.
It is necessary for the two sides to revive their bilateral strategic dialogue, rather than just confining it to border negotiations. Both sides should also continue to attach importance to exchanging views and sending out positive signals through multilateral platforms like G20, SCO and BRICS.
If Pakistan can capitalize on its close relations with Turkey in organizations like the OIC over the issue of Kashmir, India should look for possibilities to strengthen ties with its old friend Egypt whose leader Sisi has good relations with the United States, Israel and UAE. In other words, a new UAE- Israel- Egypt- India axis can be an alternative to the Pakistan- Iran-Turkey axis in an emerging global order.
As such these groups are part of an oppressive, sectarian politics, which abhors the free choice of youngsters in particular. Real reasons for this intolerant behavior have to be looked for in their overall agenda to curtail liberalism, and pluralism, and to constrain the democratic ethos of the country.
