(Bloomberg) — India has stepped up efforts to mend strained ties with its South Asian neighbors as it seeks to wrest back its waning regional influence from China.
This week senior officials, including foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, are in Nepal and Sri Lanka respectively to discuss economic and security ties. Indian Foreign ministerSubrahmanyam Jaishankar is in the island nation of Seychelles, where China has deepened defense co-operation through the transfer of aircrafts and naval ships apart from helping build their parliament building.
India has found it hard to match Chinese investments in infrastructure and security in smaller South Asian nations over the last decade, but its own policies have also added to the frayed ties with its neighbors, according to Aman Thakker, adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Shapiro scholar at the University of Oxford.Read more…
