This portal is currently a platform for over hundred regular writers from around the world. China’s involvement and presence and development fronts are increasingly evident in Sri Lanka as well. According to the survey, China’s economic clout and influence in South East Asia is steadily rising, and it is significantly ahead of other competitors. As for nearby Sri Lanka and the Maldives, these two island nations sit along the Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC) that connect East Asia with the African, Middle Eastern, and European marketplaces, though their Silk Road importance will relatively lessen with time once CPEC begins rerouting these trans-oceanic trade networks to Gwadar and thenceforth to the Chinese mainland. Almost all South Asian countries offer the USA generous access to bases, ports and sovereign sea-lanes and openly support America’s military and diplomatic presence in the region. This strong growth, according to the World Bank, has translated into declining poverty and remarkable advances in human development. Women and the minorities have no rights. Not economic equality, because that is not possible, but economic equity, and that is where we fail.”. The implications of Pakistan’s unbridled population growth, KP minister blasts Bilawal for ex-FATA development remarks, Nestlé making women in rural Pakistan financially secure, Government Wins Chairman and Deputy Chairman Positions in Senate, Revolutionizing Pakistan through austerity and entrepreneurship, Pakistan’s incompatibility with Federal form of government, Prince William, Harry ‘in talks’ reportedly after Meghan Markle interview, $3.5 billion loss suffered by Kashmiris due to India’s military siege, Pakistan to UN, China successfully launches Long March-7A rocket on second attempt, Eye on China, Biden holds first summit of Quad alliance. South Asia covers diversified climatic zones and experiences an array of climate change impacts. Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka are countries in which India has knowingly or unknowing abandoned its strategic space to China over the years. The implications of a Buddhist-majority country being perceived as discriminating against its Muslim minority could dangerously result in “volunteers” traveling to the island to give militant support to their co-confessionals, just like what stands to happen in Myanmar’s Rakhine State as well. The aspiring leader (Nasheed) also promised to reconsider his country’s involvement in the Silk Road. However, in almost every... Geopolitical Challenges of South Asia’s Silk Roads, Install "GVS APP" from "GOOGLE PLAY STORE". In 2013, the world witnessed a growing awareness among South Asians on the increase of gender-based violence against women in their societies. India successfully tested another Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, Agni V, in April last year; this has the capacity of blowing up targets at a distance of 5,500 kilometres and beyond. The never-ending battles between the two main political parties could also be manipulated in order to politically paralyze Bangladesh and render it ungovernable, with all of the attendant consequences that this could have for China’s Silk Road maritime investments. China, which has long been ambivalent about the Taliban, not least due to its own problems with its Muslims majority in the Xinjiang region, will play both ends. The religious dimensions of the Sri Lankan Civil War still continue to affect post-war reconstruction and reconciliation as ethnicity and religion are intertwined. Ultimately, the route will link the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor to the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Corridor, which will improve the standard of living of the majority of inhabitants. There are high chances that such rivalry would prevail even in the days to come. South Asia also has some significant ethnic overlaps and connections. China has been enlarging its strategic footprints in Indian backyards like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and the Maldives. Abstract. Hundreds of people have died in clashes between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims belonging to the ethnic Rohingyas. In addition, the communist coalition that recently won the country’s elections is regarded as being friendly to China, and India could try to sow distrust and division between these previously feuding groups in its drive to redirect the Nepalese government away from its balancing strategy and back towards its erstwhile sole dependency on New Delhi. A complex, great game of new geopolitics is on. Changing demographic, technological, economic and environmental factors underscore the need for cooperation beyond the three already existing co-operation treaties rather than conflict, not only at bilateral levels but even more so at the regional level. Such intra- state problems are often either the cause or consequence of inter-state disputes and misperceptions as well. China has been claiming some 90,000 sq. Alongside this, New Delhi has also tried to persuade the world that Pakistan is too dangerous of a country to do business with, obsessing over its history of security challenges and even clandestinely backing the very same terrorists that it disingenuously blames for supposedly “ruining” the country’s prosperity. Geopolitical Challenges of South Asia’s Silk Roads Andrew Korybko, author of “Hybrid Wars”, explains how “Indo-American strategy” of playing up fault lines in all countries through which China’s OBOR - of which CPEC is an integral component – has to pass is shaping up. Despite concerns over US strategic goals and plans in Asia, one may argue that the American military has never been more welcome in Asia than it is today. These include the Hambantota port project Phase-I, completed at a cost of $360 million (85% financed by the Chinese) and Phase II, with construction underway; the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport near Hambantota built at an estimated cost of $210 million, completed in March 2013. Dr Haq, a prominent economist, brought out the 1994 UNDP report on human development which focussed on South Asia. It also diverts attention from a candid examination of the roots of militancy in the poorly governed tribal belt bordering southern and eastern Afghanistan and how best to address them. Water-sharing agreements have been highly politicised at domestic levels in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Modernity requires four non-negotiable elements, Akbar argues; “One, [the country] must be a democracy, and not an arbitrary democracy. During the visit of Chinese leaders last year to Delhi, they spoke of “strategic” and “maturing” relations of mutual trust and of China's and India's shared regional interests. In the midst of growing uncertainty and political stalemate in Bangladesh, the usually moderate and tolerant country has been facing an increasing trend of religious extremism. It is likely that most readers are well aware of the Afghan-based terrorist threats (like TTP & ISIS) that afflict the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan, but these elements could also be extended to destabilize Gilgit-Baltistan as well. It can be expected that the Indo-American alliance will combine both of these narratives together to propagate the idea that the Silk Roads travel through dangerous territory (Pakistan) and ensnare developing economies in inescapable debt traps (Sri Lanka). China is concerned about India’s growing economic and military power too, especially its dominance in the Indian Ocean and its growing strategic and security relations with the US and Japan. Why should the civil society be concerned about the concept of geopolitics? The main geopolitical challenges in Asia will concern relations between the U.S., Japan, and China. This has left Beijing with the latitude to assert its strategic ambition, and that ambition has a natural focus southward. This was, in fact, a deviation from the earlier notion of the state-centric paradigm of security or national security. Growth is forecast to pick up moderately to 4.6 per cent in 2014 and 5.1 per cent in 2015, supported by a gradual recovery in domestic demand in India, an end to the recession in the Islamic Republic of Iran and an upturn in external demand. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), Asia's military spending for the first time in modern history overtook the European members of NATO last year. Feb 1, 2021. Mustansar Hussain Tasir is geopolitical, a regional security analyst based in Islamabad, Pakistan. The 13-point demand made by the HIB is almost similar to that of the Taliban. The prevailing concept is that China can progressively transition the architecture of “International Relations” from the declining “Unipolar World Order” to the emerging “Multipolar World Order” via the peaceful means of infrastructural-development initiatives that collectively redirect global strategic gravity from the West to the East. Ethnic and religious conflicts and violence kill people in different parts of Pakistan almost every day. The colonialists who invaded this sub-region of Asia always found a strategic point for their arrival and departure while they tried to colonise the South Asian countries or other parts of Asia. The Bangladeshi government increased the country's defence budget by over 11 per cent for the fiscal year ended in June 2012. China has already entered Sri Lanka’s real estate field as well as certain manufacturing projects. His other areas of focus include tactics of regime change, color revolutions and unconventional warfare used across the world. Both variable categories are adapted for the circumstances of each particular country, but the overall emerging pattern is unmistakable and it’s that asymmetrical warfare is about to be waged all across the South Asian space. Nonetheless, the region is home to many of the developing world’s poor and vulnerable. Moreover, these countries are facing an unprecedented increase in religious extremism, intolerance and religious conflicts. China’s strategic clout in Sri Lanka has been increasing in recent years and stronger collaboration has developed with an aim of building closer strategic linkages with Sri Lanka. The Asian … UNHRC defending Prabakaran, Sri Lanka’s Hitler, and the LTTE, its Nazi Party? For example, there’s indeed a healthy amount of constructive feedback about CPEC within Pakistani society, but the well-intended criticism that’s being shared should be used to strengthen the project instead of weakening it. China sees its foothold in Bangladesh as a part of its quest to establish its regional power profile; and as a means to challenge India in its own backyard. The emerging situations warrant or pose new challenges to evolve creative responses from all walks of society. To the contrary, the situation still remains tense in some of the borderland regions, with the conflict in northern Rakhine State being the most prominent among them. Put another way, New Delhi and Washington want to craft the perception that all of China’s partners will end up like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which itself is a flawed conclusion to make because it assumes that both of those states are in dire straits and haven’t benefited from OBOR. He is a scholar at School of Politics and IR, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. Just like Myanmar, Sri Lanka is confronting “weaponized federalization” between its Tamil north-east and the Sinhala-majority in the rest of the country, though this scenario doesn’t seem to be too successful at the moment. In 2011, China assisted Pakistan in successfully launching Pakistan’s communication satellite, Paksat-1R, into space from its Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province. He specializes in Russian affairs and geopolitics, specifically the US strategy in Eurasia. kms of Arunachal Pradesh as its own and this has become a constant source of tension in China-India relations. This secrecy undermines efforts to assess the programme’s legality or its full impact on FATA’s population. More specifically, when we think in terms of a country or sub-region, geopolitics means the international relationship between or among countries that are located in the same region; of politics, economy, military, culture, religion and so on. This historical rivalry stretches over various issues ranging from dominance in the region, territorial disputes, and border disputes to the intractable problem of Kashmir. It includes dates of declarations of independence, changes in country name, changes of capital city or name, and changes in territory such as the annexation, cession, concession, occupation, or secession of land. As for the security angle about CPEC, Pakistan isn’t the destabilized state that India paints it as, but foreign entrepreneurs who aren’t aware of this might easily be scared away from trading with it as a result, which is exactly what New Delhi is hoping will happen. Framing CPEC as “Punjab-centric” and a form of “neo-colonialism”, however, aren’t helpful in any way, but addressing the deal-making shortcomings that inevitably pop up when pioneering a $65 billion series of investments could prevent a repeat of those same experiences. Secondly, South Asian countries’ products (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, among other countries) will be brought to the coast of Asia. World Bank reports claim that South Asia has experienced a long period of robust economic growth, averaging 6 per cent a year over the past 20 years. This obviously caught the US’ attention because Washington plans to exploit the situation in order to make New Delhi its “Lead from Behind” proxy partner for disrupting the Silk Road’s progress in South Asia. The significance that all of this has in terms of the larger picture is that the Indo-American Hybrid War and info-war response to China’s South Asian Silk Roads are leading to the establishment of a comprehensive anti-OBOR model; one which sees the selective aggravation of identity conflict coupled with the weaponization of misleading narratives –within the specific context of a targeted state. The BJP government offered port and airport facilities for the US armed forces when they began their military operations in Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks. What we witness in South Asia today is a clear signal of lack of peace and security. The politicisation of religion for electoral gains as a religious fundamentalists' strategy is another menace faced by countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The Army is equipped with Chinese tanks, the Navy with Chinese frigates and missile boats and the Air Force with Chinese fighter jets. CPEC will not stir up Indo-Pak Trouble, says China. The growing trend of religious intolerance and religious conflicts hinder peace and communal harmony. That’s blatantly false; but the advantage that “infowars” have over other types of warfare is that they don’t have to relate to anything objectively real, they just have to appear convincing and prompt the desired responses from one’s target audience. Chinese language teaching and cultural spread are also in the pipeline, especially through the initiative of opening a Confucius Centre in Colombo. When control over natural resources by local and multinational companies is taken by force, the original owners of the land, especially the indigenous communities, are driven out of their ancestral lands. China’s more assertive territorial claims caused anxiety recently in several of the South East and North East Asian countries as did the provocative strategy applied in the case of its territorial claim with India. This was mainly due to the anger and protests triggered off by incidents such as the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl, and the gang rape of a young woman in Delhi in December 2013. By virtue of its sheer size, India has the advantage in controlling regional water resources it shares with other countries in the region. Why China added The Belt & Road Initiative to its Constitution? Last year, Nepal's highest-ranking military officer returned from China with many promises. Economic inequalities and deprivation have created frustration and insecurity among the masses, leading to an increasing criminalisation of society in which there are available targets for exploitation by extremist elements in and outside the governments. The theoretical paradigm is a bit more complex than that, but it’s being simplified here for the sake of providing easier access to this analysis. The prospect of difficult India-Pakistan relations is a geopolitical fact that affects and will continue to affect the geopolitical choices of other southern Asian countries. How should Pakistan Respond to Regional Hybrid War against it? Yet geopolitical realities have many other strings attached to the issues normally identified or included within the classical framework of the definition of geopolitics. Growth is estimated to be 3.9 per cent in 2013, nearly the slowest pace in two decades. This section, that follows, will briefly point out the most likely Hybrid War threats to each of them before concluding with the “Infowar” ones that the Indo-American alliance could weaponize in trying to stop China’s world-changing projects. The extent of widespread human deprivation in this region contrasts with the large armies, modern weapons and expanding military budgets. Increasing poverty, inadequate health care, economic exploitation, exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation; armed conflicts and violence; militarization, arms build-up, nuclearisation, spread of small arms and light weapons; domination and intervention of major powers from outside the region as well as within it; ethnic and religious conflicts, communal violence and political unrest; violations of human rights in various forms: torture, custodial death, human trafficking, violation of the rights of migrant workers, denial of the rights and dignity of stateless people; suppression of people’s legitimate right to self-determination; lack of rule of law and democratic governance, etc., have become the hallmarks of South Asia today. China will also play its strategic steps and rely on China’s friend and ally Pakistan to contain the Taliban from attacking Chinese economic interests in Afghanistan. Get all latest content delivered straight to your inbox. India, having invested massively in Afghanistan’s development over the past decade, is not about to accept a return to the 1990s, when it was completely pushed out of the country by Pakistan-backed Islamists. Out of fear of their larger neighbours, smaller powers seek external support to preserve and promote their own interests and permit outside powers to exploit the regional differences to their own benefit. Religion is returning to the centre-stage in the civil and political life of almost all South Asian nations. South Asia, one of the most heavily populated and diverse regions on the planet, has a common and shared cultural background and experience. Nowadays, external players such as the US and India are supporting former, President Mohamed Nasheed in his incipient Color Revolution against the incumbent President Abdulla Yameen, thus demonstrating an interplay of political and military pressure against Chinese interests. The BJP-led government also agreed to use Indian naval ships to escort US ships through the straits of Malacca. The agreement talks about shared security interests in protecting free flow of commerce via land, air and sea lanes along with preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and associated materials, data and technology. In parallel with each of the examined countries’ Hybrid War vulnerabilities, they’re all being targeted by Indo-American info war campaigns that seek to dissuade their governments and populations from siding with the Silk Road. Just like the US “flipped” China against the USSR in the old Cold War by taking advantage of preexisting and longstanding issues between the two, it is now doing the same by turning India against China in the New Cold War over competitive connectivity projects. Geopolitical Futures (GPF) was founded in 2015 by George Friedman, international strategist and author of The Next 100 Years. Read more: Will the Chinese string of pearls policy allow it to dominate…. He argued that the imperative of securing people from economic deprivation, hunger, disease, social conflict and environmental degradation should constitute the notion of security within the framework of human rights and human development. It should be assumed that the Himalayan Silk Road will not extend to either West Bengal or Bangladesh so long as the Indian government remains vehemently opposed to OBOR, so the possibility of overland connectivity between Bangladesh and China should be precluded for all practical intents and purposes. global strategic focus from Afghanistan and Iraq towards the Asia-Pacific region. China’s influence in other South Asian countries is not minimal either. The early part of the 21st-century is witnessing an astronomically rapid rise of China as a global superpower, aided and abetted by a combination of factors that most importantly include the United State’s own strategic missteps in the Middle East and the benign win-win comprehensive partnerships that Beijing has clinched all across the “Global South”. And you can see where Pakistan slips on these. Happily, however, the Sino-Indian relations are on an upturn and the two countries have agreed to settle their border demarcation dispute peacefully (see Cheema, 1993). Russian…, “We can think about renaming CPEC” China offers India, West Bengal Is The Bottleneck Of India’s “Act East” Strategy, Will the Chinese string of pearls policy allow it to dominate…, India is wrong to accuse IRGC for attack on Israeli embassy. Sixty-six years after the partition of India, the tension in Indo-Pak relations still continues. This represents a growth of 17.63 per cent over the previous years – one of the highest increases in recent years. Moreover climate change helps intensify dry spells. The more alarming trend of religious intolerance, religious extremism and politicisation of religion and religionisation of politics has been evident in India in recent years, especially a trend of Hindutva ideology is gaining momentum in Indian politics.