Nepal-India and Sri Lanka-India relations in the Regional Context since 1987

Abstract

Nepal is a landlocked country which is situated between the boarders of two regional powers, India and China. Throughout history India has had concerns over the politics and security of Nepal. As a result of sharing boarders with India, Nepal is facing political and security challenges such as cross border terrorism, crimes, smuggling of women, arms and illegal drugs. Located in the Indian Ocean close to South India, Sri Lanka faces the same issues via the sea. India exerts a considerable influence over Sri Lanka. Yet, unlike Nepal, Sri Lanka has accelerated its development in the recent past to a significant level. The prime factor of India’s interest in Nepal and Sri Lanka is geopolitics. These two countries are important to India by virtue of Nepal’s location between India and China in the Himalayan region and Sri Lanka’s geopolitically significant location in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The objective of this paper is to comparatively analyze Nepal-India and Sri Lanka-India relations with regard to politics and security, and to highlight positive and negative impacts arising from the relations with India since 1987. The time frame was chosen in consideration with landmark moments that occurred during the Indo-Lanka accord (1987) and Nepal’s economic blockade in 1989. The paper will also seek to identify ways and means through which Nepal and Sri Lanka can achieve sovereignty. Furthermore it will also seek to examine the role played by China’s relations with Nepal and Sri Lanka and to compare India’s responses to each of these bilateral relationships. Information in this regard will be derived from secondary sources like reference of text books, electronic data bases, journals, etc. The paper will propose that ongoing and future challenges could be overcome through lessons learned in the past and using the geographical location of both countries effectively and diplomatically.