Pakistan is trying to challenge India’s long-standing dominance in South Asian geopolitics with a new proposal to alter regional alliances. Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar recently said that Islamabad is working to ‘expand’ its trilateral initiative with Bangladesh and China to include other regional nations and beyond.
But given India’s economic heft and crisis management credentials, analysts believe no nation would risk joining a grouping that excludes New Delhi.Last week, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Dar made a pitch for a new regional body to replace the long-dormant South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). His remarks come amid escalating India-Pakistan tensions, especially after a four-day military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations in May.
Dar claimed that South Asia could no longer afford to remain trapped in “zero-sum mindsets, political fragmentation and dysfunctional regional architecture,” as he announced that Islamabad is seeking to “open and inclusive regionalism”.
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