ABSTRACT

Histories of recurrent inter and intra-state tensions have constrained progress on regional trade agreements (RTAs) within South Asia. While India tends to see itself as an omnipresent Lord Buddha, with surrounding smaller states taking on the persona of clinging acolytes, this is not a shared vision. Relations between India and its neighbours have been historically volatile, epitomised in particular by India and Pakistan. In fact, bilateral differences between the two have spilled over and stalled the South Asian regional integration process. While both countries share common historical, ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious roots, their potential to synergise constructive bilateral relations have been subverted by a number of ‘push factors’, most importantly the collapse of democracy in Pakistan, and growing sectarian and religious militancy in both countries. Inter and intra-state conflict have fuelled each other, stifling trade and economic relations and, in the extreme, evoking the spectre of a nuclear conflict.