Policy Brief


India and Maldives: Ties Must Be Consolidated

President Yameen decision to visit India soon after his election in November 2013, is an indication that he wants to put India-Maldives relations on a positive track which had received a setback since President Nasheed was deposed in 2011. A notable feature of the visit was a joint declaration recognising India-Maldivian cooperation not only in the context of South Asia but also in the context of the Indian Ocean.

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‘Arab Spring’: Implications for India

As India–Gulf relationship is taking an upward trajectory, and India’s stakes and interests are growing with time, it is time for India to adopt a formally articulated “Look West Policy” in line with the successful “Look East Policy”. This Policy Brief by the West Asia Centre of IDSA explores some policy options for India.

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India and China: Exploring Partnership in Afghanistan

In this final part of the Policy Paper series, P Stobdan deliberates that if India and China make a calibrated move for working together in Afghanistan, the outcome could be more harmonizing than conflicting. So when India reviews its post-2014 Afghan policy, the China factor should not be seen in a zero-sum perception for many in the West may press India playing a countervailing role to China.

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India Should Rebalance Regional Focus

In this third part of the Policy Paper series, P Stobdan argues that India should continue to remain engaged in Asia-Pacific for reasons not only confined to mercantile interest but also because it is an arena shaping the major powers behaviour. At the same, a regional rebalancing and attention to equally critical Central and West Asia will broaden India’s prospects for shaping the global order.

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India and Asian Geopolitics

In this second-part of the Policy Paper series, P Stobdan suggests that in the recent Indian strategic discourse, commentators have been exulting the US ‘Asia Pivot’ and seriously hoped that the idea will offset China’s regional outreach, for it also appeared similar to India’s own ‘Look East’ policy, which to an extent enabled New Delhi to ruffle a few feathers in the East Asian region.

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