Considerable South Asian engagement is essential if China is to realise its broader geopolitical and geostrategic goals as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Home to both Pakistan, the scheme’s most staunch ally, and India, its greatest opponent, the region presents China with significant opportunities tempered by seemingly irrevocable challenges.

China’s increasingly assertive and sometimes outright belligerent behaviour aimed at overcoming obstacles in the region is now, however, encouraging India to shore up its own relationships with its neighbours in an attempt to offset growing Chinese influence. Further, India is seeking out new economic, diplomatic, and security partnerships across the Indo-Pacific with countries including the US, resulting in South Asia increasingly being shaped by the logic of major power competition. Accordingly, even though the US-China rivalry will most likely continue to centre on East Asia and the Western Pacific, it would be wrong to overlook the role of South Asia in helping determine the 21st century’s global balance of power.