India has been exploring the response to China's growing influence and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for long. The contours to find viable alternatives to this challenge are now becoming visible. India is slowly transitioning to increased – and previously unthinkable – cooperation with...

Owing to the increased commitment from India, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has experienced a revival since 2016. Firstly, India is hoping to be able to develop better the country's hard-to-reach northeast by intensifying regional...

With the recent reform of India's citizenship law, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing its Hindu-nationalist agenda. The reform became necessary to fix the shortcomings of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state of Assam and to pave the...

In the countries of South Asia, the rampant coronavirus pandemic could affect more than 1.9 billion people - almost a quarter of the world's population. Given the weak­nesses of national health care systems, the fight against the virus seems to be lost before it has even begun. The economic...

The confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops in the Himalayas, which has been ongoing since the beginning of May, has escalated into the most serious crisis in relations between the two countries in 45 years. On 15 June, for the first time since 1975, 20 Indian and an unknown number of...

The results of the 16th parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka mark a political upheaval in several respects. First, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), founded in 2016, and its allies now have a two-thirds majority in parliament. Prime Minister Mahinda Raja­paksa and his brother President...

The political geography of Kashmir has changed radically in recent months. The start­ing point was the Indian government's decision on 5 August 2019 to divide the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) into two Union territories. In response, Islamabad published a map on 4 August 2020 showing all of...

The relationship between India and Western countries is increasingly characterised by a paradox. On the one hand, the country's rise has caused both sides to increasingly share geostrategic interests, for example in the Indo-Pacific. On the other hand, dif­ferences are growing as New Delhi's...

Cooperation in global digital policy is considered one of the most promising fields in the strategic partnership between India and the European Union (EU). However, pro­found differences are apparent in terms of implementation, for example with regard to data protection, competences of security...

India is a central partner for German and European foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific. The German Federal Government's autumn 2020 guidelines and the November 2021 coalition agreement both emphasise the importance of expanding relations with India. To advance the common cause of a multilateral...