India, May 22 -- Admittedly, India's relations with its immediate neighbours have in recent times been uneasy primarily because of two factors. One, the Chinese economic suzerainty in smaller nations through a colonising project of debt-trapping and infrastructure-building called the Belt and Road Initiative. Second, India's over-dependence on historical, spiritual and geographical connect as a leitmotif of diplomacy instead of nurturing bilateral relations on more favourable and equal terms or defusing anxieties that smaller nations are bound to feel. China's rapid engagement with the political leadership of each country around us has meant that each is now leveraging its strategic importance vis-a-vis India. And the economic largesse of...