A session at The Hindu Huddle, to be held on May 9 and 10, will discuss all the changes in the world and within the region to understand their impact with two of the region’s most experienced thinkers: former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, T.S. Tirumurti.

Despite a ‘Neighbourhood First’ motto in foreign policy, New Delhi frequently finds itself at the receiving end of troubled relations with the countries that it is geographically closest to.

An escalation in tension, and possibly military confrontation, with Pakistan is imminent after the Pahalgam terror attack. After years of boycotting the Taliban, the Modi government has now built ties with the regime in Kabul, but they remain tenuous given the Taliban’s extremist ideology. Bangladesh, once its staunchest of allies, is now becoming a major cause for worry with the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the increasing strength of radicals in the country. Ties with Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are ever-close, and India has invested heavily in aid, infrastructure construction, and project assistance to these countries, but the shadow of the bigger neighbour, China, appears to loom over ties. Will South Asia become the next battleground for U.S.-China rivalry? And how should India assert its own influence in a region that is so fraught?

A session at The Hindu Huddle, to be held on May 9 and 10, will discuss all the changes in the world and within the region to understand their impact with two of the region’s most experienced thinkers: former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, T.S. Tirumurti, who has served as a diplomat in the neighbourhood.

The session, ‘In the Hood: New forces shaping subcontinental geopolitics’, will be moderated by Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

The conversation will include not just South Asia’s contested past, but the challenges of the foreseeable future, including tackling climate change and global pandemics, the impact of AI and supercomputing on the region’s massive labour force, the importance of resilient supply chains and intra-regional trade given growing tariffs and barriers in other markets, as well the sustainability of regional groupings such as BIMSTEC, SAARC, BBIN, and SASEC, for a population of two billion people, in an age of sharp geopolitical rivalries.

If you have any questions that you would like our moderator to ask the panelists, write to us at huddle@thehindu.co.in.