Good partnerships make good neighbours: A study of India’s diplomacy with her neighbourhood through SAARC and ASEAN

Abstract

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was setup in 1985 in Dhaka to serve as the geopolitical union of the Asian nation states. Currently, despite owning only 3% of the world’s area, the region boasts of 3.8% of the global economy which it operationalises with the help of its hard working that residents forming 21%1 of the global population. It is one of the selected multinational cooperation entities that have survived the diplomatic hot seat of southern Asia. Even after three decades, SAARC continues to be take up cooperative developmental agendas of its member countries, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.