As India navigates an uncertain China, Bangladesh and an strategic Pakistan, the real question is if New Delhi can turn confident rhetoric into a neighbourhood policy

Speaking at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum on Saturday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar offered a phrase that will likely outlive the event itself: India, he said, must engage Beijing "from a position of confidence." It was meant to describe China policy alone, but by the time he had finished fielding questions on Bangladesh and Pakistan, it had become something closer to a governing philosophy for India’s entire neighbourhood.

On China, the confidence has some substance behind it. Jaishankar was candid about the "particularly bad patch" between the 2020 Galwan clash and autumn 2024, and credited the border disengagement at........

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