Shibani Mehta argues that centres of power should approach the South Asian region not as a collective but appreciate the particular interest of each nation.

Carnegie India hosted Deep Pal, a visiting scholar in the Asia Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, for a closed-door roundtable on the drivers, manifestations, and impacts of China’s relationships with four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. This was followed by a discussion moderated by Rudra Chaudhuri.

In South Asia, the coronavirus pandemic is at once a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and a humanitarian crisis.

The Bangladesh crisis makes clear that no subcontinental crisis is ever just a subcontinental affair. There will invariably be wider geopolitical forces which will impinge on the way that the subcontinent acts.

The economic advancement of Bangladesh helps lift up the whole of the eastern Subcontinent, including India’s Northeast as well as Bhutan and Nepal.

While trade liberalization and transportation infrastructure should remain BIMSTEC’s key priorities, the Bay of Bengal will not re-emerge as a regional space unless there are significant investments to foster people to people exchanges.