Delhi's rivalry with Islamabad driving reshuffle in regional ties

Old rivalries between India and Pakistan are driving a shift in regional ties, with New Delhi courting Afghanistan's Taliban while Islamabad befriends the new leaders of post-revolutionary Bangladesh.

- AFP

NEW DELHI -

Diplomatic dynamics in South Asia are rooted in long-running distrust between the region's two most populous nations.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan - carved out of the subcontinent at the chaotic end of British colonial rule in 1947 - have fought multiple wars and remain bitter foes. The rivalry shows no sign of abating, with New Delhi denying in January it had launched covert operations to kill anti-Indian militants on Pakistani soil.

"You can't have snakes in your backyard and expect them to only bite your neighbours," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters in dismissing the allegations.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have also worsened since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul nearly four years ago.

Islamabad has accused the Taliban authorities of failing to rein in militants they say are using Afghan territory to stage attacks that have killed thousands of Pakistani security personnel.

Pakistan launched deadly air strikes in Afghanistan border regions in December 2024, with subsequent cross-border exchanges of fire.

The Taliban's austere interpretation of Islamic law seems at first glance an unlikely pairing for the Hindu nationalism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but India has nonetheless moved to exploit the opportunity.