EMERGING REALIGNMENT

Rapid developments appear to be reshaping India's regional landscape, hinting at a subtle yet significant realignment of strategic interests.

- Shivaji Sarkar

Rapid developments appear to be reshaping India's regional landscape, hinting at a subtle yet significant realignment of strategic interests. These shifts could mark the early stages of a new regional balance - one that may open fresh avenues for India and alter longstanding equations across Indo-Pacific, West and South Asia. The US decision to relax sanctions on Iran's Chabahar port for six months has revived India's long-stalled $370 million project, strengthening its role in regional logistics and security. Combined with a new 10-year defence pact with Washington, these moves point to a quiet reconfiguration of the Indo-Pacific and West and South Asian order on the sidelines of ASEAN defence ministers' meeting.

Together, these moves signal a recalibration of Washington's South Asia policy - one that appears to recognise India's pivotal role and extends cooperation well beyond trade or tariff disputes.

The significance of these developments cannot be overstated. The Chabahar relaxation comes at a time when the US-Taliban standoff over Bagram airbase remains unresolved and the global energy market is under stress from continuing instability in the Middle East. If these changes continue on their current trajectory, they could have lasting implications for the global strategic order - especially given the overlapping signals from Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's Alaska dialogue, the Xi-Trump trade understanding on tariffs and rare-earth supplies, and the quiet thaw between India and China on limited trade and security matters.