India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar

The first principle

Geography makes these four countries India's closest neighbours, and it also makes India their largest market, their main route to the sea or to the world, and their most powerful partner. That asymmetry is the root of both the closeness and the friction: small states value Indian help but fear Indian dominance, and so each of them keeps a second option open, usually China. India's policy, from the Gujral Doctrine (1996) of giving more than it asks in return to Neighbourhood First (2014), rests on one idea: a secure and prosperous neighbourhood that sees India as a partner rather than a big brother is the first condition of India's own rise.

The core

Nepal: the open border and its strains

• The 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship. It gives citizens of each country national treatment in the other, in residence, property, trade and employment, and keeps the 1,751 km border open, so millions of Nepalis live and work in India. Many in Nepal see it as unequal, and an Eminent Persons Group was set up in 2016 to review it.
• Gorkha regiments. Under a tripartite agreement of 1947 between India, Nepal and Britain, Nepali Gorkhas serve in seven Gorkha Rifles regiments of the Indian Army. Since 2022 Nepal has held up recruitment under the Agnipath scheme.
• Hydropower. Nepal's rivers could produce far more power than it can use. The Mahakali Treaty (1996) provided for the Pancheshwar multipurpose project, which has not yet been built, but trade has grown: in January 2024 the two countries signed a long term agreement for India to import 10,000 megawatts (MW) from Nepal over ten years, and in 2024 Nepal began selling power to Bangladesh through the Indian grid.
• The 2015 blockade perception. When Nepal adopted its new constitution in September 2015, protests by the Madhesi community of the Tarai stopped supplies at border points. Nepal blamed India, India said Nepali protesters were responsible, and the episode pushed Nepal to sign a Transit and Transport Agreement with China in 2016.
• The map dispute (2020). After India opened a road to Lipulekh in May 2020 for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, Nepal published a new map showing Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura as its territory and placed it in its constitution by amendment in June 2020. India's position is that the area lies in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, that the map is an "artificial enlargement" of claims not based on historical facts, and that boundary questions should be settled through dialogue.

Bhutan: the model partnership

• From 1949 to 2007. The 1949 Treaty said Bhutan would be "guided by the advice" of India in external affairs. The revised Friendship Treaty of 2007 dropped this and commits the two to cooperate closely on issues of national interest and not to let their territory be used against each other.
• Hydropower as the bond. India built Bhutan's large hydro projects through a mix of grant and loan and buys their surplus power, so electricity is Bhutan's largest export and a source of clean power for India. India has funded Bhutan's five year plans since the first one in 1961, and the Border Roads Organisation's Project Dantak has built roads there since 1961.

Bangladesh: settled boundaries, open rivers

• 1971 and after. India's role in the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 is the founding memory of the relationship. Ties grew much closer from 2009 to 2024, when Bangladesh acted against insurgent groups of India's northeast sheltering on its soil.
• The Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). The 1974 agreement was implemented only after the Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015. On 31 July 2015, 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India were exchanged and residents chose their citizenship, settling the 4,096 km land boundary, India's longest.
• The maritime boundary. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2014 gave Bangladesh about 19,467 square kilometres of the 25,602 square kilometres in dispute in the Bay of Bengal. India accepted the award.
• Rivers. The two share 54 rivers. The Ganga Water Treaty (1996) shares the lean season flow at Farakka for thirty years and is due to expire in December 2026, so its renewal is on the agenda. A Teesta sharing deal agreed in 2011 has stalled because West Bengal objects, and China has offered a project to manage the Teesta in Bangladesh.
• Connectivity and energy. The Akhaura Agartala rail link (November 2023) and the Maitri Setu over the Feni river (2021) bring the northeast closer to Chattogram. India supplies electricity, diesel through the India Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (2023), and has extended three lines of credit since 2010 worth more than 7 billion dollars, the largest it has given any country. Indian firms also work on the Rooppur nuclear plant built by Russia, India's first nuclear cooperation in a third country.

Myanmar: the land bridge to Southeast Asia

• The border. India and Myanmar share a 1,643 km border along Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, through hills where the same tribes live on both sides. The Free Movement Regime (FMR) let residents cross up to 16 km without a visa; in February 2024 the Union government announced that it would scrap the regime and fence the whole border, citing insurgency and drug trafficking.
• Connectivity. The Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project links Kolkata to Sittwe port by sea, then by river and road to Mizoram, so the northeast can bypass the Siliguri Corridor. The India Myanmar Thailand Trilateral Highway runs from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand.

Dimensions

• Security. The Siliguri Corridor, about 22 km wide at its narrowest, is the only land link to the northeast, so events in Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh bear directly on it. In Doklam (June to August 2017), Indian troops stopped Chinese road building on territory claimed by Bhutan near the India Bhutan China trijunction in a 73 day standoff.
• Economic. India is the largest trading partner of Nepal and Bhutan, Bangladesh is India's largest trading partner in South Asia, and India gives transit to landlocked Nepal and Bhutan through its ports. The tools are lines of credit through the Export Import Bank of India, grants and market access.
• Energy. Hydropower from the Himalaya and cross border grids and pipelines are turning the region into a single power market.
• Social and cultural. Open borders, pilgrimage circuits (Lumbini, Janakpur, Bodh Gaya) and kinship tie societies together, so India's domestic debates on migration and citizenship are heard loudly next door.
• The China factor. China offers roads, ports and loans under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Nepal signed a BRI framework in December 2024, Bhutan has held boundary talks with China since 1984 and agreed a Three Step Roadmap in October 2021, Bangladesh has large Chinese investment and arms, and China is building a deep sea port at Kyaukphyu in Myanmar. India's answer is to deliver projects faster and on better terms, not to demand exclusive loyalty.

Source: Ministry of External Affairs, India Bhutan bilateral brief; Druk Green Power Corporation.

In practice

Recent turns

• Bangladesh after August 2024. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left for India on 5 August 2024 after student led protests, and an interim government under Muhammad Yunus took office. India raised concern over attacks on minorities, Bangladesh sought Hasina's return, and in April 2025 India withdrew the transshipment facility that let Bangladeshi exports pass through Indian ports to third countries.
• Nepal in September 2025. Youth led protests forced the resignation of Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli, and an interim government under former Chief Justice Sushila Karki called fresh elections.
• Myanmar since the 2021 coup. The military seized power on 1 February 2021 and the country slid into civil war; resistance groups and ethnic armies have since taken large parts of the border region. India engages the military government for border security and connectivity, calls for a return to democracy, and has given relief such as Operation Brahma after the March 2025 earthquake. Thousands of Chin refugees have crossed into Mizoram, where they share ethnic ties with the Mizos, and conflict on the border has fed tensions in Manipur.
• The Rohingya. About a million Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh after 2017. India treats those who entered India as illegal migrants, supports their safe return, and sent relief to Bangladesh under Operation Insaniyat (2017).
• Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City. Announced by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in December 2023, it is a special economic region on the border with Assam. India has committed rail links from Kokrajhar to Gelephu and from Banarhat to Samtse.

Issues and way forward

• Asymmetry and perception. Slow delivery, rigid stands and comments in Indian domestic politics feed the "big brother" image. The remedy lies in the Gujral principle of non reciprocity, faster project completion, and engagement with oppositions and civil society, not only governments.
• Water. The Ganga treaty renewal and the Teesta deal need the Centre and the states to agree before talks with Bangladesh; basin level management with data sharing and flood warning would turn rivers from a grievance into shared work.
• Unfinished boundaries. The Kalapani question with Nepal should be handled through the existing boundary mechanisms and quiet diplomacy, without making it a public contest.
• Border management. Fencing the Myanmar border and the riverine gaps on the Bangladesh border must be balanced with the livelihoods of tribes and traders, through border haats and regulated passes.
• Connectivity delays. Kaladan, the Trilateral Highway and Pancheshwar are years behind; time bound monitoring and partnership with Japan in the northeast can close the gap with Chinese speed.

Common confusions

• The 1949 and 2007 Bhutan treaties. The 1949 treaty asked Bhutan to be guided by Indian advice in foreign affairs; the 2007 treaty removed that clause and rests on cooperation between sovereign equals.
• Land and maritime boundary with Bangladesh. The land boundary was settled by agreement and a constitutional amendment in 2015; the maritime boundary was settled by arbitration in 2014.
• Kalapani and Doklam. Kalapani is a claim by Nepal on territory India holds as its own; Doklam is territory claimed by Bhutan where China tried to build a road, and India acted with Bhutan.
• Kaladan and the Trilateral Highway. Kaladan is a sea, river and road route from Kolkata to Mizoram through Sittwe; the Trilateral Highway is a road from Manipur through Myanmar to Thailand.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Neighbourhood First, Gujral Doctrine, Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1950), Kalapani and Lipulekh, Mahakali Treaty, Doklam, Siliguri Corridor, Gelephu Mindfulness City, Land Boundary Agreement, One Hundredth Amendment, Ganga Water Treaty, Teesta, Free Movement Regime, Kaladan project, Act East gateway.
• Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction with data: "With Bangladesh alone India shares a 4,096 km land boundary, its longest, and the exchange of 162 enclaves in 2015 showed that even the oldest boundary disputes in the neighbourhood can be settled by negotiation."
  • Introduction with a judgement: "The Permanent Court of Arbitration's 2014 award on the Bay of Bengal, which India accepted though most of the disputed area went to Bangladesh, is the clearest proof of India's commitment to a rules based neighbourhood."
  • Conclusion: "India's eastern neighbours will keep a China option open; India's task is not to close it but to be the partner whose projects arrive first and whose market and grid make cooperation the natural choice."
  • Conclusion: "Neighbourhood First will succeed when it is built on institutions, rivers, grids and people rather than on the fortunes of particular governments in Kathmandu, Dhaka or Naypyidaw."