| Summary/Abstract |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first foreign policy message was to rebuild neighbourhood relations in the South Asian region. He invited all the heads of the government of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries to participate in his oath taking ceremony on May 26, 2014. This was to indicate that the neighbourhood was the top priority of Modi’s foreign policy. A feeling of alienation and a degree of disenchantment had set in in India’s relations with the neighbours during the last years of the Manmohan Singh regime. Even where the Singh government wanted to push forward, like in the case of Bangladesh, it was constrained by coalition politics. In Nepal, the drift in Constitution making had vitiated bilateral relations with India. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s dream of having breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Islamabad and dinner in Kabul got trapped in Pakistan’s inability and unwillingness to move on the question of cross-border terrorism against India. Sri Lanka and Maldives were being lured by the Chinese economic promise and strategic balancing. SAARC, being a hostage to the bilateral dynamics between India and its neighbours, has been performing far below its expectations and promise.
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