Neighbourhood First has been the declared cornerstone of Indian foreign policy for over a decade: the idea that India’s primary strategic circle is South Asia, and that ties with Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives and others deserve priority. In practice, the policy blends generous development assistance and connectivity projects with hard-nosed security management — and it operates in a region where China’s growing footprint challenges Indian primacy daily. This is how New Delhi manages its most complicated relationships.

What does Neighbourhood First mean?

Articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2014 — his first invitation to SAARC leaders for his swearing-in was the symbolic launch — the policy promises non-reciprocal generosity: India gives more than it takes, funding infrastructure, extending credit lines and responding first to disasters. The logic is enlightened self-interest: a stable, prosperous neighbourhood means secure borders, thriving trade and no space for hostile external powers. Instruments include Lines of Credit worth billions, the International Solar Alliance’s regional chapters, and vaccine diplomacy during Covid-19, when India supplied neighbours before many richer nations managed domestic rollouts.

How are the key relationships managed?

Each neighbour gets a tailored approach. Bhutan is the model partnership — hydropower cooperation and a 1949 friendship treaty updated in 2007. Bangladesh saw a land-boundary settlement in 2015 resolving decades-old enclaves, though Teesta water-sharing remains stuck. Nepal oscillates between closeness and nationalist friction, most sharply during the 2015 blockade and the 2020 map dispute. Sri Lanka received $4 billion in Indian assistance during its 2022 collapse, outpacing China’s response. The Maldives swung from India Out campaigns to renewed partnership. Myanmar balances security cooperation against the junta’s brutality and refugee flows.

Where does China fit in?

The China factor shadows everything. Beijing’s Belt and Road investments — Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, Gwadar in Pakistan, highways in Nepal, the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge — offer neighbours leverage against Indian dominance and New Delhi strategic anxiety. India’s response mixes competition (alternative connectivity, the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor with Japan) with reassurance (disaster relief that arrives faster than China’s). The contest is asymmetric: China brings deeper pockets, India brings geography, history and the absence of a debt-trap narrative. Smaller states expertly play both sides, extracting maximum benefit.

Why is SAARC dead and BIMSTEC the future?

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has been moribund since the 2016 summit’s cancellation after the Uri attack — India refuses to engage Pakistan multilaterally while cross-border terrorism continues. New Delhi has pivoted to BIMSTEC, linking South and Southeast Asia around the Bay of Bengal, and to sub-regional groupings like the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal motor-vehicles framework. The shift reflects a hard lesson: regional integration cannot wait for the India-Pakistan dispute, so India builds around it instead.

Does the policy work?

The ledger is mixed.

• Successes: Bhutan’s partnership, Bangladesh’s boundary settlement, Sri Lanka’s rescue, first-responder disaster diplomacy.
• Strains: Nepal’s nationalist backlashes, Maldivian flip-flops, Myanmar’s impossible dilemmas.
• Structural limits: India’s own protectionism undercuts trade integration; domestic politics in neighbours periodically demands anti-India posturing.
• The China test: Beijing will keep bidding for influence; India’s edge is proximity and responsiveness, not money.

Neighbourhood First endures because geography gives India no choice: South Asia is where its security begins. The policy’s real measure is not affection — neighbours will always hedge — but whether the region’s defaults tilt toward New Delhi when crises come. On that test, the record is better than the headlines suggest.

The diaspora and development toolkit

Beyond governments, Neighbourhood First works through people and projects: Indian technical training slots for thousands of neighbours’ officials, power-grid interconnections letting Nepal and Bhutan sell electricity to India, and UPI payment linkages spreading across the region. During crises — the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Sri Lanka’s 2022 meltdown, Maldivian water shortages — Indian relief arrives first, building goodwill no summit can. The toolkit’s quiet logic: make India indispensable to neighbours’ daily lives, and strategic alignment follows.

FAQs

What is Neighbourhood First?

India’s foreign-policy doctrine prioritising ties with South Asian neighbours through development assistance, connectivity and non-reciprocal generosity, articulated from 2014.

Why is SAARC not functioning?

The grouping has been frozen since 2016, when India boycotted the Islamabad summit after the Uri attack; New Delhi refuses multilateral engagement with Pakistan amid terrorism.

How does China challenge India in South Asia?

Through Belt and Road infrastructure, port investments and loans that give smaller neighbours leverage against India, forcing New Delhi to compete with aid and connectivity.

Source: The Diplomat