Reversing the trust deficit

More than anything else, mutual trust can make all the difference in relations between two countries. This is perhaps more evident in South Asia than anywhere else. The region is home to one-fifth of all humanity and comprises on the one hand a nation as huge as India and, on the other, a country as tiny as Bhutan. The dynamics of such huge contrasts in physical sizes and populations have created various pushes and pulls over the past six decades, leading to a deterioration of trust in bilateral relations between neighbors in the region.

 The most prominent and open-ended absence of trust exists between the two largest nations, namely India and Pakistan - a gap that has eluded all efforts to bridge it. While Kashmir continues to be the core cause for this lack of trust, there are other bilateral issues such as Siachen, Sir Creek, terrorism and sharing of waters, that simply do not seem to find solutions. There have been repeated initiatives by both nations to engage with each other in view of poor economic conditions on both sides and various external challenges, but nothing seems to work. Every time leaders of the two countries or their senior aides meet, hopes are raised of thawing of relations but the ‘trust deficit' factor somehow creeps in and it's back to square one.

 Relations between India and Bangladesh have not been very constructive in recent years. New Delhi has had concerns over militants infiltrating into Bangladesh while the latter has complaints about India's policies, especially over trade-related issues and sharing of river water. There is a general impression in Dhaka that India demands too much from it and is prepared to give too little in return.  The trust equation between India and Sri Lanka has also flip-flopped over the years. In the post-LTTE era particularly, despite its physical proximity to India and its ethnic affinity with India's south, Sri Lanka has become closer to China and Pakistan as a result of their political and military support to Colombo during the war. For various reasons, this has not reflected on India-Sri Lanka relations very well and the trust level between the two neighbors has taken a negative hit.

Since the immediate threat to any country arises in its neighborhood, it is important to work on the building blocks of peace, stability and friendship with neighboring states - and reverse the trust deficit in the process.