India, May 25 -- The Indian response to the Pahalgam terror attack and its aftermath has by itself not fundamentally altered the regional geopolitics, but it has highlighted some important aspects of South Asia's evolving balance of power. The Indo-Pak military standoff this time differs from the previous episodes and acts as a shadow of the region's future geopolitical trajectories.

Even though it was the US that reportedly made midnight calls to India and Pakistan to bring an end to the conflict which Washington mistakenly assumed was escalating to nuclear levels, what the standoff makes abundantly clear is that the structure of the regional balance of power has changed. It is safe to say that China has replaced the US as the most cons...