South Block Watch Neighbourly visits and easterly outreach By Nilova Roy Chaudhury

The neighbourhood was in close focus this fortnight, as boundaries eased with northern, eastern and southern neighbours dropping in, as if catching up on old friends. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stopped by in Kolkata to launch and watch the first-ever day and night cricket test match with a pink ball, and chat animatedly over lunch with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, exuding sorority warmth. Interestingly, none of the central government leadership visited Kolkata to meet Hasina.

A wary South Block was very relieved and breathed a lot more easily after newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed to make New Delhi the destination for his first overseas visit on November 29. That the visit was cordial and appeared to exude bonhomie between the “strong men” of their respective countries, Gotabaya and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, augurs well for a more nuanced and comfortable bilateral relationship. That Rajapaksa spoke of trying to rework the Hambantota port lease arrangement with China clearly indicates that Beijing’s embrace of Colombo could get slightly looser, a very welcome development in the Indian Ocean region after Male’s election of the MDP government last year. Unlike the 2015 Sri Lankan presidential election, when the Indian embassy in Colombo served almost as the staging base for the faction opposed to then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and helped catalyse the support of opposition factions around Maithripala Sirisena, India in 2019 stayed well out of the political game because, primarily, it didn’t want to choose or interfere. Neither candidate was its first preference.

The way Sirisena and the Ranil Wickremesinghe government fell out publicly in 2018, leading to the midnight removal of the latter to bring Mahinda Rajapaksa back to centre-stage and the subsequent political and economic mess, accompanied by the complete mishandling of the security situation, allowing the horrific Easter Sunday attacks to happen, served as a salutary lesson for India. In fact, New Delhi moved swiftly since 2018, diplomatically, through High Commissioner Taranjit Sandhu, to build bridges with Mahinda Rajapaksa, inviting him over to India and clearing the air. Immediately after playing host to Bhutanese Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji and ironing out some creases in the crucial bilateral relationship; including over imposition on some restrictions on Indians travelling to Bhutan and why Bhutanese students are preferring to travel to Canada and Australia and not India for higher education; Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made an impromptu visit to Colombo, taking advantage of proximity to be first off the block to greet the new president and invite him over. With the creeping Chinese influence in all three countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, India’s effort is to raise comfort levels with each and make itself as indispensable as possible, despite not being able to counter Beijing’s deep pockets. That, and the cultural bonds, of Bengali language and Buddhism.

India is looking also to present, along with Japan, the possibilities of extending the Asia Africa Growth Corridor to these countries. The inaugural 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue, between the foreign and defence ministers of both countries, took place alongside these neighbourly visits, on November 28. The India-Japan 2+2 dialogue was raised to the level of ministers for the first time, clearly reflecting the growing strategic trust between the two countries. Earlier, the 2+2 dialogue was at the level of the top bureaucrats of the respective ministries. Japan and the USA are the two countries with which India has such a strategically formatted dialogue. The India-US 2+2 Dialogue is scheduled for later in December.

Tokyo and Delhi plan to move to jointly undertake projects in third countries, like those in India’s immediate neighbourhood. Given that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to visit India in mid-December for the annual bilateral summit, the discussion emanating from the 2+2 will form an important component of the main outcome during the summit. Scheduled to be held in Guwahati, Assam’s principal city, where Japan has begun investing in major infrastructure projects, it is likely that some third-country project initiatives will be firmed up, bolstering India’s Act East policy. And, as officials from Dhaka always point out, for India, the first place they see when looking east is Bangladesh.

With the creeping Chinese influence in all three countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, India’s effort is to raise comfort levels with each and make itself as indispensable as possible, despite not being able to counter Beijing’s deep pockets. That, and the cultural bonds, of Bengali language and Buddhism