India and its neighbours: Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives

India's neighbourhood is where foreign policy meets daily life: shared rivers, power grids, roads, fishing waters, migration and security. The official framework since 2014 is Neighbourhood First, which gives priority to immediate South Asian neighbours and draws on an older idea, the Gujral Doctrine of 1996, that the largest country should give without demanding an equal return in kind. The test of the policy is not its slogan but how it survives political change in each neighbour.

Bangladesh illustrates both closeness and change. Under Sheikh Hasina, who led Bangladesh until August 2024, India and Bangladesh deepened trade, connectivity and security cooperation. After her resignation on 5 August 2024, following student protests that began in July 2024, and the formation of an interim government under Muhammad Yunus, the relationship became more complicated, with new sensitivities over rhetoric, border issues and regional alignment. Nepal shows a different mix: long-standing open-border and cultural ties sit alongside disputes over territory and maps, hydropower cooperation and concern in New Delhi about Chinese infrastructure in Nepal. A 2024 arrangement allowing Bangladesh to import Nepali hydropower through Indian grids was cited as a landmark in regional energy cooperation.

Sri Lanka is often cited by supporters of Neighbourhood First as a success. During Sri Lanka's severe economic crisis in 2022, India provided about $4 billion in assistance, including credit lines and a currency swap, alongside support for debt restructuring. Critics note that assistance does not remove longer-term questions about debt, fisheries, and the rights and welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka, which remain sensitive in Indian domestic politics.

The Maldives shows how quickly a relationship can turn. President Mohamed Muizzu, elected in September 2023 after an "India Out" campaign, sought the withdrawal of Indian military personnel, who were replaced by civilian technical staff by May 2024, according to reports of that process. Relations later stabilised, but the episode reminded New Delhi that neighbourhood policy must work with elected governments whose mandates may include distancing from India. Across all four cases, a common thread is that neighbours also have their own domestic politics, and China is an alternative partner for many of them — a fact that shapes, but does not by itself determine, their choices.