Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.
The highlights this week: New Delhi hosts Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for Republic Day as it seeks to finalize a missile sale to Jakarta, trains across Bangladesh are canceled amid a railroad workers’ strike, and Pakistan’s senate passes a controversial misinformation law.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.
The highlights this week: New Delhi hosts Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for Republic Day as it seeks to finalize a missile sale to Jakarta, trains across Bangladesh are canceled amid a railroad workers’ strike, and Pakistan’s senate passes a controversial misinformation law.
India Seeks to Finalize Missile Sale
On Jan. 26, India hosted Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto as the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day festivities. Indonesia is one of India’s closest partners in Southeast Asia, and the visit produced pledges to cooperate on issues including infrastructure, counterextremism, health, and maritime safety.
Prabowo’s trip also featured negotiations on a $450 million prospective sale of Indian supersonic cruise missiles to Indonesia. Though the advanced-stage talks haven’t led to a deal yet, they highlight India’s growing status as a net security provider—especially coupled with recent Indian negotiations with several other Southeast Asian states on missile sales.
All of this should provide a boost to India’s ties with U.S. President Donald Trump’s new administration, which hopes to see its allies and partners stepping up on the security burden-sharing front.
India is the world’s largest arms importer, but in recent years it has started to ramp up arms sales in its neighborhood and beyond. It has a deal in place with the Philippines—and another soon expected to be concluded with Vietnam—to ship Brahmos missiles, the same type that India hopes to send to Indonesia.
But these are just the high-profile examples: New Delhi sells arms to more than 85 countries and set a record for arms sale profits in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. India has also flexed its growing naval power in the Middle East, where its warships provide protection to commercial vessels threatened by Houthi attacks and assist others targeted by piracy.
These activities help push back against long-standing criticism that India punches below its weight on the global stage. But India’s increasingly active security posture will also be music to the Trump administration’s ears. The Brahmos deals are intended to strengthen the capacity of Washington’s friends in the Indo-Pacific to fend off Chinese provocations, directly serving U.S. interests.
Additionally, with Trump likely to take a “what have you done for me lately” approach toward top U.S. allies and partners, New Delhi’s performance could score it points. Not only is India projecting power to protect critical sea lanes and working to arm U.S. partners against China, but it is also sending military supplies to U.S. allies including Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, Trump’s return allows India to dodge a bullet with these missile talks. Brahmos missiles are produced by an Indian-Russian consortium; Trump’s more restrained position on Russia compared to that of former U.S. President Joe Biden suggests that arrangement won’t be a problem for Washington.
India has sent many positive signals to the United States since Trump took office last week, essentially taking steps to reduce the risk of tensions. The new president spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by phone on Monday. New Delhi has stated that it is exploring reducing tariffs, taking back undocumented Indian immigrants in the United States, and importing more U.S. oil to reduce supplies from Russia.
So, by showing its commitment to finalize talks with Indonesia on its latest Brahmos missile shipment, India might not intend to send a direct message to the United States. But it is another reason to believe that India could get off to a better start with the new Trump administration than some closer U.S. allies.
What We’re Following
Bangladesh railroad strike. This week, I am in Bangladesh, which has returned to relative normalcy six months after the movement that led longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign. The spirit of last summer’s mass protests remains palpable, though, with street murals in the capital of Dhaka commemorating the event.
One of the consequences of that mass movement is an increased hunger for activism. On Tuesday, trains across Bangladesh were canceled as the country’s railway workers went on strike, demanding higher pensions and benefits such as overtime pay.
Saidur Rahman, the acting president of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Union, said that the strike was called after the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to reach a deal with workers on Monday. Bangladesh’s state-run railway network employs around 25,000 people and carries more than 250,000 passengers daily.
Pakistan’s senate passes controversial bill. On Tuesday, Pakistan’s upper house of parliament passed a bill that allows the government to impose fines on or jail social media users for intentionally spreading misinformation. The amendment to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act expands the scope of content that the government can ban.
Though the bill is aimed at combating misinformation, critics argue that it grants the government the power to suppress freedom of speech and exert tighter control over digital platforms. It marks the latest step by Pakistan’s leadership to crack down on social media, one of the country’s last redoubts for dissent.
Hundreds of journalists participated in protests on Tuesday across Pakistan’s major cities, including Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore.
India maneuvers between giants. This week featured some significant diplomacy for New Delhi. In Trump’s call with Modi, according to a U.S. readout, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advancing the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue partnership and discussed security and trade. Trump told reporters that Modi will likely visit Washington “sometime in February,” with Indian reports suggesting Feb. 14 and 15.
Meanwhile, India reached a key accord with China on Monday, as the two sides agreed to resume direct flights after nearly five years of tensions stemming from a deadly border clash. The announcement came after Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Beijing. India and China have also discussed resuming access to a popular Hindu pilgrimage site in Tibet.
FP’s Most Read This Week
Regional Voices
In the Print, Lt. Gen. Prakash Menon warns against Bangladesh’s warming relations with Pakistan and China. “[T]he synergy of China-Pakistan-Bangladesh is potentially a serious security threat that calls for India’s security planners to first and foremost take whatever internal steps required to stabilise the northeastern states and avoid providing generative grounds for exploitation,” he argues.
In the Himalayan Times, scholar Vidhu Prakash Kayastha underscores the urgent need to address Nepal’s unemployment and underemployment crisis. “With an economy heavily reliant on low-productivity agriculture and struggling to diversify into manufacturing and services, the country’s growth has stagnated,” he writes.
A Kuensel editorial celebrates British singer Ed Sheeran’s historic concert in Bhutan, which makes him the only international artist to have performed in the country: “For Sheeran, whose music speaks to universal themes of love, hope, and resilience, the performance aligned perfectly with Bhutan’s narrative—a young nation striving to preserve its rich heritage while embracing modernity.”
Anusha Rathi contributed research for this article.
