India has promoted regional cooperation in South Asian region in a spirit of generosity, without insisting on principle of reciprocity. Analyse (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
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IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· There are abundant signs of a fresh commitment by India to the neighbourhood in current government’s second term.
· The key connectivity project, which will provide Nepal with cleaner petroleum products at affordable cost, was completed well ahead of schedule, giving the lie to the notion that India’s project delivery is tardy.
· Geography plays a determining role in creating inter-dependence. Even as Nepal, like other South Asian countries, seeks closer ties with China, there is a much better appreciation today that India’s role as a key economic and developmental partner is unique and indispensable.
· India’s relations with Bangladesh have evolved into a model partnership, consolidated by high-level exchanges, mutual trust and enhanced cooperation on security matters.
· Notably, the centrepiece Mangdechhu project (750 MW) was completed on schedule last year. The introduction of the RuPay card in Bhutan and elsewhere in the neighbourhood will further cement economic and people-to-people ties.
· South Asia has 1.8 billion people and a combined GDP of nearly $3.47 trillion, with India’s economy the largest by far. South Asia has great potential but has been held back by Pakistan.
· It has held to ransom cooperation within SAARC by raising extraneous matters, perpetuating terrorism and rejecting the ineluctable logic of intra-South Asian trade, which remains abysmally poor.
· The stasis in SAARC is entirely due to Pakistan’s recalcitrance. Even so, between 2014 and 2018, India’s developmental assistance to six South Asian countries was over Rs 21,100 crore.
· The signing of the MoU on BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection at the fourth BIMSTEC Summit, attended by all seven nations in Kathmandu in August 2018, provides a fillip to cross-border electricity trade.
· India’s focus on BIMSTEC and its Act East Policy have served to highlight India’s key role in promoting cooperative growth and development in several parts of South Asia.
· In a world increasingly characterised by a “my country first” approach, India has endeavoured to harness the impulse for regional cooperation in a spirit of generosity, without insisting on reciprocity, to realise Modi’s motto of Security And Growth For All In The Region (SAGAR).
