India's Neighbourhood Relations: SAARC & Beyond
📊 High-Yield Data & Statistical Fact Sheet
- Panchsheel Principles (1954): Five principles of peaceful coexistence forming the bedrock of India's early foreign policy and NAM.
- UNSC Reform claims: India demands permanent membership in UN Security Council under G4 partnership (India, Brazil, Germany, Japan).
- Neighborhood First Policy: prioritizes economic integration, connectivity, and development assistance to SAARC/BIMSTEC neighbors.
- BIMSTEC regional weight: Represents 22% of global population and combined GDP of $4.5 Trillion across 7 member states.
- Act East Policy momentum: Focuses on deep economic, security, and cultural connectivity with ASEAN and East Asian nations.
- Quad Indo-Pacific Coalition: Strategic partnership (India, US, Japan, Australia) promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific maritime space.
- IMEC Connectivity corridor: Transnational ship-to-rail transit network connecting India, Middle East, and Europe.
- Line of Credit (LoC) assistance: India extended developmental assistance lines of credit worth $30+ Billion to partner nations.
- UN Peacekeeping deployments: India remains a top troop contributor, deploying 2.7 Lakh+ personnel in 50+ missions.
- Nuclear Retaliation Doctrine (2003): Built on No First Use (NFU) and Credible Minimum Deterrence under political control.
- SCO Membership status: India joined Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as a full member in 2017 at Astana Summit.
- G20 Presidency leadership (2023): Orchestrated New Delhi Declaration, integrating the African Union as a permanent member.
- International Solar Alliance (ISA): Co-founded by India and France in 2015 (HQ in Gurugram), boasting 120+ signatory countries.
- CDRI Disaster Resilience Coalition: India-led global coalition of 39 countries upgrading infrastructure resilience.
- Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI): Launched in 2019 at East Asia Summit to coordinate maritime security and trade.
- India-ASEAN FTA trade volume: Bilateral trade agreement signed in 2009 driving trade volumes past $130 Billion annually.
- Gujral Doctrine Principles: Five principles of non-reciprocal cooperative concessions to smaller South Asian neighbors.
- Look West Policy pivot: Strategically deepens energy, investment, and defense ties with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations.
- Chabahar Port Access: Bilateral agreement with Iran to develop Shahid Beheshti port to access Central Asian trade corridors.
- INSTC Trade Corridor: 7,200 km multi-mode network linking India, Iran, Central Asia, and Russia to bypass traditional routes.
QUICK-GLANCE SUMMARY TABLE
QUICK-GLANCE SUMMARY TABLE
QUICK-GLANCE SUMMARY TABLE
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1. INDIA – PAKISTAN: ASYMMETRIC WARFARE & DIRECT COLLISION
INDIA – PAKISTAN: ASYMMETRIC WARFARE & DIRECT COLLISION
INDIA – PAKISTAN: ASYMMETRIC WARFARE & DIRECT COLLISION
| Cue Words | Notes |
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| Detail the concepts and significance of 🔴 Flashpoint: Operation Sindoor (7–10 May 2025). |
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| Detail the concepts and significance of Structural Disputes. |
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2. INDIA – BANGLADESH: GEOPOLITICAL FRACTURE & SHIFTING ALLIANCES
INDIA – BANGLADESH: GEOPOLITICAL FRACTURE & SHIFTING ALLIANCES
INDIA – BANGLADESH: GEOPOLITICAL FRACTURE & SHIFTING ALLIANCES
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| Detail the concepts and significance of 🔴 Flashpoint: The Post-Hasina Rupture (2024–2026). |
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| Detail the concepts and significance of Shared Foundations & Strains. |
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3. INDIA – NEPAL: ROTI-BETI CIVILISATIONAL MATRIX
INDIA – NEPAL: ROTI-BETI CIVILISATIONAL MATRIX
INDIA – NEPAL: ROTI-BETI CIVILISATIONAL MATRIX
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| Detail the concepts and significance of Core Bonds. |
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| Detail the concepts and significance of Structural Disputes. |
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4. INDIA – SRI LANKA: FIRST RESPONDER DIPLOMACY
INDIA – SRI LANKA: FIRST RESPONDER DIPLOMACY
INDIA – SRI LANKA: FIRST RESPONDER DIPLOMACY
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| Detail the concepts and significance of The Bailout & The Reset. |
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| Detail the concepts and significance of Strains & Strategic Security. |
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5. INDIA – MALDIVES:populist "INDIA OUT" TO MANAGED RESET
INDIA – MALDIVES:populist "INDIA OUT" TO MANAGED RESET
INDIA – MALDIVES:populist "INDIA OUT" TO MANAGED RESET
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| Detail the concepts and significance of The Volatility & Normalisation. |
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6. INDIA – MYANMAR: THE ACT EAST CORRIDOR
INDIA – MYANMAR: THE ACT EAST CORRIDOR
INDIA – MYANMAR: THE ACT EAST CORRIDOR
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| Detail the concepts and significance of Strategic Balancing Act. |
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7. INDIA – BHUTAN: THE HYBRID SECURITY STRAP
INDIA – BHUTAN: THE HYBRID SECURITY STRAP
INDIA – BHUTAN: THE HYBRID SECURITY STRAP
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8. INDIA – MAURITIUS: WESTERN IOR BASE
INDIA – MAURITIUS: WESTERN IOR BASE
INDIA – MAURITIUS: WESTERN IOR BASE
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9. INDIA – AFGHANISTAN: STRATEGIC INSULATION
INDIA – AFGHANISTAN: STRATEGIC INSULATION
INDIA – AFGHANISTAN: STRATEGIC INSULATION
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QUICK REVISION BOX
- Operation Sindoor: launched 7–10 May 2025; tri-service SCALP/HAMMER strikes eliminated 9 JeM/LeT bases in Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack.
- Indus Waters Treaty: Suspended by India in April 2025 for the first time in 65 years.
- Ganges Treaty & Teesta: Ganges treaty expires in 2026. Yunus govt's China Teesta project deal near the Chicken's Neck remains a primary Indian concern.
- Agaléga Island: Transformative Indian surveillance base in Mauritius, completed in 2025.
- Muizzu Reset: Maldives PM Modi visit on 26 July 2025 successfully reset the populist "India Out" era, backed by a USD 400M currency swap.
- BIMSTEC Charter: Entered force 20 May 2024, granting it legal personality.
- Chabahar Waiver: Active and vital for Eurasian transit; current US waiver expires April 26, 2026.
Notes updated up to March 2026. Sources: MEA, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, World Bank Integration Database.
- India's Environment Minister represented the country at the inaugural Sagarmatha Sambaad, a multi-stakeholder dialogue in Kathmandu, Nepal themed "Climate Change, Mountains, and the Future of Humanity," where India outlined a five-point call for mountain ecological action.
- Gen Z protests erupted in Nepal in 2025 leading to resignation of PM K.P. Oli; protesters torched Parliament and released prisoners from Nakkhu Central Jail.
- Since 1990, Nepal has seen 30 government changes and 13 Prime Ministers, none completing a full term.
- Nepal is classified as a least developed country by the UN with an economy heavily dependent on remittances; overall unemployment is 12.5%, with 56% of male out-migrant absentees being youth.
- Nepal households receiving remittances rose from 23.4% (1995-96) to 76.8% (2022-23), and remittance share of household income rose from 26.6% to 33% in the same period; top destinations are Qatar (10%), Saudi Arabia (9%), Malaysia (8.6%), UAE (7.1%).
- Remittances as % of Nepal GDP rose from 1% (1990) to 33% (2024), making Nepal the 4th most remittance-dependent country globally.
- Nepal's President appointed former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as the new PM in 2025, announcing fresh elections for March 5, 2026; Karki is Nepal's first woman Chief Justice and now its first woman PM.
- A battle between two ethnic armed groups in Myanmar forced around 4,000 Chin people to take refuge in Mizoram in 2025; the Tiau river demarcates part of the 510-km India-Myanmar border.
- The Chins of Myanmar and Mizos of Mizoram belong to the greater Zo community, which also includes Kukis, Zomis, Hmars, and Kuki-Chins of Bangladesh.
- Tiau River (Tyao/Tio River) originates in the Mizo Hills and forms an international boundary between Mizoram and Myanmar's Chin State for about 159 km, merging with the Tuipui River; it has a border crossing at Zokhawthar-Rikhawdar with a bridge enabling trade.
- Myanmar's military junta ended the state of emergency imposed since the 2021 coup and announced elections for December 2025; the coup ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, and resistance is led by pro-democracy fighters, ethnic armed groups and civilian militias; China welcomed the junta's election announcement while India maintains formal ties with the junta with limited outreach to pro-democracy forces.
- Reports show Indian state firms have supplied equipment, navigation parts, and diesel to the Myanmar junta.
- Karen National Union (KNU), an ethnic group in Myanmar, has been designated a terrorist organisation by the military government.
- After the 2021 Myanmar coup, resistance is led by the Peoples Defence Forces and Ethnic Armed Organisations; in Rakhine, the Arakan Army controls large areas while the Tatmadaw holds urban centres like Sittwe port.
- Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project connects Kolkata to Sittwe port by sea, then via the Kaladan River (Sittwe-Paletwa) and road (Paletwa-Zorinpui) to Mizoram, bypassing the narrow Siliguri Corridor; it was operationally inaugurated in May 2023 with the first cargo ship from Kolkata, fully financed by the Government of India, and acts as a counter to China's Kyaukpyu port in Rakhine State.
- The word 'junta' originates from Spanish, meaning 'meeting' or 'committee', used in 16th-century Spain for government advisory committees.
- Following the Pahalgam terror attack by TRF killing 26 tourists, the Cabinet Committee on Security placed the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty "in abeyance"; the IWT has no exit clause, and Article XII(4) requires a "duly ratified treaty" to end it, while "abeyance" is not a term recognised under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which allows only "suspension" under Article 62 for a "fundamental change of circumstances" (India is not a VCLT party and Pakistan has not ratified it).
- In the 1997 Gabcikovo-Nagymaros case, the ICJ rejected Hungary's treaty termination on grounds of political, economic and environmental shifts as not constituting a "fundamental change" -- a precedent relevant to India's IWT abeyance move.
- India lowered Baglihar dam's sluice spillway gates to restrict water flow to Pakistani Punjab as a punitive measure; Baglihar and Salal are run-of-the-river hydropower projects on the Chenab, with Salal being India's first hydropower project in J&K built under the IWT.
- India currently uses only about 1 MAF of its permitted 3.60 MAF storage on western rivers and has developed irrigation on just 0.642 million of the 1.34 million permitted acres in J&K/Ladakh, while using over 90% of its 33 MAF allocation on eastern rivers via the Bhakra (Satluj), Pong (Beas) and Ranjit Sagar/Thein (Ravi) dams.
- Over 80% of Pakistan's agriculture and 33% of its hydropower depend on Indus basin waters; India's "flushing the reservoir" at Baglihar and Salal (a routine silt-clearing practice) was conducted without notifying Pakistan, contrary to IWT norms, risking Punjab-Sindh tensions over canals like Cholistan.
- Kishanganga and Ratle hydro projects have drawn Pakistani objections; in the Ratle case India sought a Neutral Expert while Pakistan wanted the Court of Arbitration, and the World Bank's decision to allow both mechanisms led India to boycott the proceedings (a 2013 Court of Arbitration ruling had earlier permitted India's Kishanganga diversion under strict minimum-flow conditions).
- Indus Waters Treaty (1960, signed in Karachi by Nehru and Ayub Khan) was brokered by the World Bank; India controls three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) while Pakistan controls three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab), with about 80% of the water volume allocated to Pakistan; it set up a Permanent Indus Commission and a three-tier dispute mechanism (Commission to Neutral Expert to Court of Arbitration), with India's rights on western rivers limited to non-consumptive uses like hydropower and navigation.
- Indus river system comprises six rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) spanning China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan; in India it drains Ladakh, J&K, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, covering about 3,21,289 sq km (9.8% of India's geographical area); Indus and Sutlej are antecedent rivers originating in Tibet, while Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Beas originate in India.
- Post-Pahalgam, India froze all imports from Pakistan (banning direct or indirect imports of goods originating there), suspended all postal links, barred Pakistan-flagged ships from Indian ports, and shut the Kartarpur Corridor, halting visa-free pilgrimage to Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib.
- Operation Sindoor involved 24 precision strikes on nine targets in Pakistan and PoK within 25 minutes, using BrahMos and SCALP missiles against terrorist infrastructure at 11 named airbases (including Bholari, Sargodha and Rahim Yar Khan) without hitting military or civilian facilities, neutralising at least 100 terrorists; kamikaze drones (Byker YIHA III) were intercepted by India's Army Air Defence, and OTT platforms were directed to remove Pakistani content under Part III of the IT Rules, 2021.
- India's response to Operation Sindoor invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter (right to self-defence, requiring reporting to the UNSC) and the "unwilling or unable" doctrine for targeting non-state actors harboured by Pakistan; both countries are party to the SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, the ICSFT and the Terrorist Bombing Convention.
- The India-Pakistan Line of Control (about 740 km, from Sangam in Kashmir to Point NJ-9842 near Siachen) traces from the Ceasefire Line created by the 1949 Karachi Agreement, renamed the LoC by the 1972 Simla Agreement, with the last formal ceasefire established in December 1971; the LoC is not an international border but a holding line for both militaries.
- "Hyphenation" links two countries like India and Pakistan in policy treatment, while "de-hyphenation" is maintaining independent diplomatic ties with rival states without prioritising one; the Indian Army's Red-teaming unit REDFOR, under ARTRAC (Shimla), vets war-game plans using an approach named "Vidur Vakta" (inspired by the Mahabharat).
- Key historical India-Pakistan military operations: Operation Riddle and Operation Ablaze (1965), Operation Cactus Lily (1971, air assault across the Meghna River), Operations Trident and Python (1971, Navy strikes on Karachi, first regional use of anti-ship missiles), Operation Meghdoot (1984, Siachen), Operation Vijay and Operation Safed Sagar (1999, Kargil), and Operation Bandar (2019, Balakot strike after the Pulwama attack).
- FATF (established 1989 as a G7 initiative, mandate expanded 2001 to terror financing) has 40 members and its decision-making Plenary meets three times a year; Pakistan is not an FATF member but belongs to the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), while India is a member of both FATF and APG; grey-listing Pakistan requires a member-led nomination and Plenary approval.
- TRF has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US and named by the UN Monitoring Team; the EU sanctioned the Vadinar Refinery (with a Rosneft stake) even while continuing to import Russian oil itself; China hosted a Pakistan-Bangladesh trilateral meeting in Kunming, and Bangladesh's Lalmonirhat WW-2 airbase near Siliguri has drawn attention.
- Sir Creek dispute: a 96-km estuary between Kutch (Gujarat, India) and Sindh (Pakistan); Pakistan claims the entire creek citing the 1914 Bombay Government Resolution's Green Line, while India claims the mid-channel Thalweg principle per a 1925 map; the dispute affects EEZ, maritime boundary and continental-shelf rights near the Mundra and Kandla ports, and third-party intervention is barred under the 1972 Simla Agreement.
- ADB approved $800 million to Pakistan under its Resource Mobilisation Reform Programme even as Pakistan's tax-to-GDP ratio fell from 13% (2017-18) to 9.2% (2022-23), far below the roughly 19% Asia-Pacific average, alongside a "significant increase" in Pakistan's defence spending.
- IMF's Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (GCD, 2025, conducted with World Bank experts at Pakistan's request) sits within a 37-month, $7-billion IMF Extended Fund Facility approved in 2024; publication of the GCD report is a precondition for IMF executive board approval of disbursement.
- IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) addresses medium-term/structural Balance of Payments problems over a 3-4 year programme with 4.5-10 year repayment, versus the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for short-term BoP issues over 12-24 months with 3.25-5 year repayment.
- Pakistan's 27th Constitutional Amendment (2024) created a Federal Constitutional Court that curtails the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction and weakens judicial independence, and introduced a Chief of Defence Forces post, making Field Marshal Asim Munir military supremo and commander-in-chief of all three services with sole control of Pakistan's nuclear assets.
- Nankana Sahib (Punjab, Pakistan), birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev Ji (born 1469) and site of Gurdwara Janam Asthan, was where the 1921 massacre of Akali Sikhs by Mahant's forces occurred -- a key moment in the Sikh Gurdwara Reform Movement that led to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 and SGPC control of gurdwaras.
- Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, a visa-free crossing to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur (founded by Guru Nanak in 1504, where he spent his last 18 years), was inaugurated in 2019 on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
- Banned outfit LeT is raising funds through online and offline campaigns to rebuild its headquarters in Muridke, destroyed during Operation Sindoor; three terrorists were killed in Srinagar's Lidwas area (upper Dachigam forest) during "Operation Mahadev", probed for links to the Pahalgam attack.
- Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact (SMDA) under which Pakistan's nuclear programme "will be made available" to Saudi Arabia if needed; Saudi Arabia reportedly funded Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme during its development and hosted 20,000 Pakistani troops during 1979-89 to counter Iran and Yemen.
- India remains Saudi Arabia's second-largest trading partner and a major crude-oil buyer, and hosts the Kingdom's largest Indian diaspora, valued for competence and neutrality.
- During the 2017 Doklam standoff China withheld hydrological data from India but not from Bangladesh; as India and Bangladesh prepare to renew the Ganga Water Treaty in 2026, the IWT abeyance episode may complicate those talks.
- India-Bangladesh Joint River Commission (JRC) covers 14 of 54 shared transboundary rivers (including Ganges, Raymangal, Ichamati-Kalindi, Atrai and Mahananda); the 1996 Ganga Waters Agreement (30-year validity, signed in Sheikh Hasina's first term) is due for renewal in 2026, with Bangladesh also seeking a joint flood-forecasting system.
- India restricted Bangladeshi garment imports to only the Kolkata (Syama Prasad Mookerjee) and Nhava Sheva (JNPT) seaports with mandatory inspections, via a DGFT directive banning imports through land ports in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram; Bangladesh retaliated by banning Indian rice exports via the Hili and Benapole ICPs in West Bengal, while its transit trade with Nepal-Bhutan via Indian routes remains unaffected.
- Bangladesh is India's largest South Asian trade partner and India is Bangladesh's second-largest, with bilateral trade at $14.01 billion and India in surplus; the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project linking Mizoram-Kolkata/Haldia-Myanmar has gained added importance amid these trade restrictions.
- India banned jute imports from Bangladesh via land ports despite Bangladesh's earlier duty-free access, after prior anti-dumping duties failed to offset continued subsidies hurting India's jute industry (grown in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya); the DGFT order restricted woven jute fabrics, twine, rope, sacks and bags.
- Russia became the first country to officially recognise the Taliban government since it took power in 2021, reversing its 1996-2001 stance of opposing the Taliban and backing the Northern Alliance and UN sanctions; China has not formally recognised the Taliban but hosts a Taliban ambassador in Beijing.
- India will upgrade its technical mission in Kabul to a full Embassy and exchange diplomats with the Taliban government (having closed its Embassy in 2021 after the US-led withdrawal); India-Afghanistan trade has crossed $1 billion and India announced 1,000 ICCR e-scholarships for Afghan students, with assurances that Afghan territory will not be used against India.
- India's Ambassador to Russia attended the Moscow Format Consultations (a regional platform established by Russia in 2017), which had 11 members as of 2026 (Russia, Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) plus guests like Belarus, with Afghanistan participating as a full member for the first time at the 7th meeting in 2025.
- India raised the need for greater use of Iran's Chabahar port and dry ports in Nimruz province, Afghanistan (a tri-junction bordering Iran and Pakistan, known for the Helmand River and Kamal Khan Dam), linked via the BRO-built Delaram-Zaranj Highway (2009) to Afghanistan's Garland Highway, bypassing Pakistan for trade with Central Asia.
- Pakistan conducted airstrikes on Kabul, prompting Afghan retaliation across the Durand Line; Kabul may become the first world city to run completely dry by 2030, and India's renewed offer to build the Shahtoot dam on the Kabul River (part of the Indus river system) has alarmed Pakistan given a reported 16% drop in downstream flows.
- PM Modi's attendance at Maldives' 60th Independence Day marked a major shift in ties that had soured since 2023; India and Maldives signed a $750 million currency swap agreement valid till 2027, launched FTA negotiations, and expanded UPI-based Rupee-Rufiyaa digital payments cooperation.
- India's MAHASAGAR vision (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions, launched 2025) builds on and expands the SAGAR policy's maritime-security focus across the Global South (Africa, Latin America, Indo-Pacific) to promote India-led cooperation and counterbalance Chinese influence.
- Maldives lies barely 70 nautical miles from India's Minicoy and 300 nautical miles from India's west coast, straddling key Indian Ocean commercial sea lanes (the 8 degree N and 1.5 degree N channels); tourism contributes about 21% of its GDP (top source markets China and Europe) against external debt exceeding $8 billion.
- Starlink satellite internet became available in Sri Lanka, the third South Asian country after Bhutan and Bangladesh; in India, Starlink has received GMPCS authorisation but still needs orbital slot assignment from IN-SPACe and spectrum allocation from the Department of Telecommunications.
- Katchatheevu, a 285-acre uninhabited island near Delft Island, was ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974; the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) was defined by bilateral agreements in 1974 (Palk Bay) and 1976 (Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal), and in return India secured rights over the marine-rich Wadge Bank near Kanniyakumari; the 1976 pact bars fishing in each other's EEZ, and bottom trawling by Tamil Nadu fishermen (which damages coral beds and fish stocks) remains the core dispute.
- Palk Bay is a semi-enclosed shallow water body between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka's Northern Province, connecting to the Gulf of Mannar via Adam's Bridge (Rama Setu), with Rameswaram (India) and Kankesanthurai (Sri Lanka) as major ports.
- India launched "Operation Sagar Bandhu" to send relief to Sri Lanka via INS Vikrant, INS Sukanya and INS Udaygiri, later reinforced by INS Gharial and landing craft LCU 54/51/57, coinciding with a three-day International Fleet Review featuring INS Vikrant (India's first indigenous aircraft carrier) and INS Udaygiri (its latest indigenous stealth frigate).
- Punatsangchhu-II hydroelectric project (Sankosh River) was inaugurated as a Government of India-Bhutan venture with India providing initial capital, repaid through revenue from electricity sales to India at periodically-adjusted competitive rates; India credits Bhutan's 2003 "Operation All Clear" (Royal Bhutan Army) for driving Indian insurgent group cadres out of Bhutan.
- The Centre announced two new India-Bhutan rail links -- Kokrajhar-Gelephu (Assam) and Banarhat-Samtse (West Bengal), totalling 89 km -- the first-ever rail connectivity projects between the two countries; Bhutan will also benefit from the Jogighopa Inland Waterways Transport Terminal in Assam, and the two nations have collaborated on five hydropower projects: Chukha, Tala, Mangdechhu, Kurichhu and Punatsangchhu-II.
- India and Nepal amended the Treaty of Transit to facilitate rail-based bulk cargo movement between Jogbani (India) and Biratnagar (Nepal).
- Colombo Security Conclave, established in 2011 (originally a trilateral of India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, reconstituted as the CSC in 2020), now includes Bangladesh, Mauritius and Seychelles (2025); at its 7th NSA-level meeting, five cooperation pillars were highlighted: maritime safety/security, countering terrorism/radicalisation, combating trafficking and organised crime, cyber security, and HADR; Malaysia joined as a guest country for the first time.
- Gen Z protests have swept several countries in Indias neighbourhood and beyond, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Timor-Leste, Madagascar, Maldives and Mexico, driven by issues like corruption and lack of security; barring the 2024 Bangladesh protests, most have featured the Straw Hat Pirates Jolly Roger flag from One Piece, first used in Indonesian truck drivers protests.
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