Receding South Asia focus

At a time when adverse headwinds buffet global trade, India is intensifying its trading relationships with important developed and developing countries. A sharper focus on Asia, including the neighbourhood, has been advocated by the CEO of the official think-tank, NITI Aayog, BVR Subrahmanyam.

Most countries do have maximum trade with their neighbors, like the US, Mexico, and Canada or the European Union ( EU ). The big question is, why this isn’t happening in India’s case beyond what he says is the “misfortune that we are in a very difficult geography”? It is no doubt true that Indo-Pakistan tensions are largely responsible, but the regime change in Bangladesh—that is our largest trading partner in the neighborhood—is also adversarial to India’s interests.

Besides such neighbours, a m