INDO-US STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOUTH ASIA

This article analyzes the profound implications for the South Asian region of the deepening strategic partnership between India and the United States. It examines the key drivers and components of this partnership, which represented a historic transformation of their bilateral relationship. The study's central focus is on how this new strategic alignment was perceived by and impacted the other countries of South Asia. The research provides a detailed analysis of the perspective of Pakistan, which viewed the Indo-US rapprochement, particularly the civil nuclear deal, with deep concern, seeing it as a move that would upset the regional strategic balance. The paper also explores the more nuanced reactions of the smaller South Asian states, which had to navigate a new geopolitical landscape defined by the close relationship between the region's pre-eminent power and the global superpower. The analysis concludes that the Indo-US strategic partnership was fundamentally reshaping the security dynamics of South Asia and presented both new challenges and new opportunities for the other states of the region.

The growing strategic partnership between India and the United States in the 2000s was the single most important geopolitical development in South Asia since the end of the Cold War. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of its implications for the region. The study begins by outlining the key milestones of the new partnership, from the lifting of US sanctions to the signing of the landmark civil nuclear agreement and the expansion of defense cooperation. The core of the article is an examination of how this new alignment was affecting the regional balance of power and the security perceptions of other South Asian states. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of the profound negative implications for Pakistan. It argues that from Islamabad's perspective, the Indo-US partnership was a deeply destabilizing development that would further enhance India's conventional military superiority and grant it a new level of international legitimacy, thereby marginalizing Pakistan. The study also explores the more complex implications for the smaller states of South Asia, like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. For them, the partnership presented a mixed picture: on the one hand, a stable and cooperative Indo-US relationship could be a force for regional stability; on the other hand, it raised concerns about the emergence of a unipolar regional order dominated by an India that was backed by the US. The findings reveal that the Indo-US partnership, while celebrated in Washington and New Delhi, was a source of considerable anxiety and strategic readjustment for the rest of South Asia.