A new chapter for India's regional strategic policy

In 2025, India's foreign policy must deftly navigate a rapidly evolving strategic landscape in the neighbourhood.

- Happymon Jacob

Over the years, even as India has transformed both in power and temperament, its neighbourhood has changed politically and strategically, and the relationship between the two has transformed as well. South Asian geopolitics—its balance of power, rivalries, partnerships, and the level of external interest and involvement—have all undergone major transformations; 2025 will bring some of these changes into sharper focus.

Let me highlight five features that have come to characterise our region over the past two decades.

What stands out about India's neighbourhood today is the dramatically diminished interest of great powers compared to a decade or two ago. The era when the United States was a key geopolitical player in South Asia—driven by its military presence in Afghanistan, concerns about terrorism, and the India-Pakistan situation—has largely passed.

A related focus of the international community was the Kashmir conflict, and South Asia was often referred to as a nuclear flashpoint. Today, those concerns have taken a backseat, and the international community has its hands full elsewhere, and Washington is no longer interested. In some ways, South Asia is far more stable today compared to other regions in the world.

Second, at long last, India's frontier with Pakistan has somewhat quietened down—the Line of Control in Kashmir is mostly peaceful, infiltration is largely contained and attacks inside Kashmir are at best sporadic.