(a) Peaceful co-existence remains the cornerstone of India's foreign policy. Comment. (10 marks) (b) Discuss the ways and means…

(a) Peaceful Co-existence in India’s Foreign Policy

Peaceful co-existence entered India’s diplomacy through the Panchsheel principles in the preamble of the India–China Agreement of 29 April 1954 and was widened into the ten principles of the Bandung Conference (1955). It holds that states with different systems can coexist through mutual respect for sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference, equality and mutual benefit.

Relevance today: India still frames its diplomacy through sovereign equality, dialogue and non-interference, through strategic autonomy and multi-alignment (ties with the US, Russia and the Global South at once), and through support for a rules-based multipolar order, UN peacekeeping and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Limits: the 1962 war showed the cost of relying on Panchsheel without military preparedness. Responses to cross-border terrorism, such as the 2016 surgical strikes, Balakot (2019) and Operation Sindoor (2025), show a firmer posture.

Peaceful co-existence remains the normative cornerstone, but India now pairs it with credible deterrence rather than treating it as passive pacifism.

(b) Economic Co-operation in South Asia

South Asia is among the least integrated regions, with intra-regional trade around 5 per cent of its total trade (World Bank).

1. Make SAFTA work: prune sensitive lists, remove non-tariff barriers and harmonise standards and customs.
2. Connectivity: the BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement (2015, Bhutan has not ratified it, so it proceeds as BIN), Integrated Check Posts and rail and inland-waterway links.
3. Energy trade: cross-border grids and power trade, such as the first Nepal–India–Bangladesh transaction (November 2024).
4. Finance and digital: the SAARC Development Fund, currency swap lines and UPI interoperability with Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
5. Sub-regional routes: with SAARC stalled (no summit since Kathmandu 2014, the 2016 Islamabad summit was called off), BIMSTEC and BBIN offer practical momentum.

Political mistrust, especially India–Pakistan, remains the main obstacle, so functional sub-regional cooperation is the realistic path.

(c) Hydro-Co-operation between India and Bangladesh

India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers, which makes water central to their relations.

1. Renew the Ganga Water Treaty (1996), which expires in December 2026. Renewal talks under the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC, 1972) are under way.
2. Conclude the long-pending Teesta agreement, building on the 2022 Kushiyara interim MoU. Delay has opened space for China’s proposed Teesta river project.
3. Move to basin-level management through a revitalised JRC, treating rivers as ecological units.
4. Share real-time hydrological data and flood forecasts and manage silt jointly to cope with climate stress.
5. Link water with energy: hydropower trade from Nepal and Bhutan through Indian grids, which began with 40 MW in November 2024.

Water is politically sensitive in West Bengal and in Bangladesh, so agreements need state-level consensus in India and sustained trust across the border.

(d) Significance of BECA for Indo-US Strategic Relations

The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) was signed at the India–US 2+2 dialogue in October 2020. It allows the sharing of classified geospatial, aeronautical, nautical and satellite data.

1. It completed the four foundational agreements, with GSOMIA (2002), LEMOA (2016) and COMCASA (2018).
2. It improves navigation and targeting accuracy for missiles and armed drones such as the MQ-9B, 31 of which India contracted to buy in October 2024.
3. It strengthens maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean and interoperability in the Indo-Pacific.
4. It underpins later steps such as the 10-year Framework for the India–US Major Defence Partnership (October 2025).

BECA deepens cooperation without an alliance, so India’s strategic autonomy is retained, and trade frictions in 2025 showed that the partnership still faces political turbulence.

(e) Public Diplomacy and India’s Global Standing

Public diplomacy is a state’s engagement with foreign publics, as distinct from government-to-government diplomacy. Joseph Nye’s “soft power” is its theoretical basis.

1. Culture: ICCR and the International Day of Yoga (UNGA resolution, December 2014, with 177 co-sponsors).
2. Diaspora: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and community outreach.
3. Development and health diplomacy: Vaccine Maitri and humanitarian aid as first responder.
4. Summitry: the G20 presidency (2023), “One Earth, One Family, One Future”, and the admission of the African Union.
5. Narrative-building: digital outreach by the MEA and the all-party delegations sent to over 30 countries after Operation Sindoor (2025).

Limits include thin diplomatic resources, competing external narratives and the effect of domestic controversies on India’s image. Public diplomacy works best when backed by consistent policy and capacity.