Moderator Khushi Kabir repeatedly situated Nepal’s uprising within a broader South Asian context, drawing parallels with recent mass movements in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. She described Nepal’s experience as part of a regional reckoning driven by youth demanding accountability, dignity, and meaningful participation in governance.
With PNS Khaibar's delivery Pakistan and Türkiye are taking their relationship to a new level which is not limited to traditional political friendship. At the handover ceremony, Erdoğan described the relationship between the countries as "brotherly ties" and emphasised the need to further collaborate in defence production. The naval leadership of Pakistan also pointed to the fact that the partnership should benefit Pakistan in achieving its overall maritime modernisation.
What is unfolding in Bangladesh bears unsettling resemblance to trajectories seen in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where false blasphemy accusations have long been used to terrorize minorities and silence dissent. Once such violence is tolerated, it expands - devouring journalists, artists, reformist Muslims, and eventually the state itself.
The current strains in Bangladesh–India relations should therefore be seen not as an inevitable deterioration, but as a test of diplomatic maturity. Bangladesh and India share more than geography and history; they share a responsibility to ensure that temporary political frictions do not harden into structural mistrust. In a time of regional uncertainty, neither country benefits from a relationship defined by grievance or miscommunication.
Although the Indian government believes that FDI is coming into the country in record amounts, most of it is through mergers and acquisitions and not greenfield investments which entail building factories, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
The US may continue to bomb the Taliban and keep asking them to reconcile but such a scenario is not going to unfold, especially when nothing has been done in 20 years to block the financial support and arms supplies to the Taliban, writes Lt Gen P. C. Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
If sportswomen are treated equally and provided with equitable opportunities, women athletes from South Asia are bound to participate in greater numbers in top international events like the Olympics, writes Sarita Bartaula for South Asia Monitor
India ought to tread cautiously in aligning with the US as a counterweight to China, writes Mayank Mishra for South Asia Monitor
Warship building and design is an arduous undertaking and India now joins a select group of nations that have demonstrated proven capability to conceive, design, and build an aircraft carrier, writes C Uday Bhaskar for South Asia Monitor
One can be optimistic that Biden’s selection will lead to a debate on freedom of religion and more interfaith dialogues in South Asia and other parts of the world, writes Frank F. Islam for South Asia Monitor
Instability in Afghanistan along with the discord with Pakistan does not augur well for South and Central Asian connectivity, writes Niranjan Marjani for South Asia Monitor
With the historic revocation, the Indian government has finally applied salve on the festering anger in Kashmir: anger born out of chronic underdevelopment and misgovernance, writes Suchismita Panda for South Asia Monitor
Cooperation among BCIM members is essential for the sustainable development of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, writes Dipankar Dey for South Asia Monitor
US Secretary of Defense General Lloyd James Austin has said that the Afghan forces must slow the Taliban’s momentum. The question is how, writes Lt Gen P. C. Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
With the ever-growing presence of China in Southeast Asia, it would be injudicious to keep the economic and strategic prospects that West Bengal has to offer underutilized, and hostage to petty internal politics, writes Anondeeta Chakraborty for South Asia Monitor
Not only was the use of a weaponized drone on the Jammu IAF base an act of war but a violation of the ceasefire agreement concluded by DGs, military operations, of India and Pakistan, effective from midnight, 24-25 February 2021, writes Col. Anil Bhat (Retd) for South Asia Monitor
The Pakistan incident against Chinese workers is all the more worrying as Chinese personnel and technicians are working on various projects not only in Pakistan, but in other South Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, as well as many African nations, writes N S Venkataram for South Asia Monitor
Better connectivity in this region would facilitate the establishment of trade linkages with other regions through platforms such as the BIMSTEC, SAARC, and ASEAN, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
For Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government, the acid test of preserving Nepal’s core interests and increasing its bargaining capacity vis-à-vis India and China will depend on how the Nepalese leadership responds to the emerging geopolitical and geoeconomic imperatives in the region, writes Zahoor Ahmad Dar for South Asia Monitor
