India’s perspective towards China in their shared South Asian neighbourhood: cooperation versus competition

India’s top foreign policy priority is its neighbourhood of South Asia and the Indian Ocean, which it shares with China. This article seeks to understand how India views its largest and most powerful neighbour China in their shared neighbourhood. In view of the nature of the geographical location of the two major rising powers, India seeks to engage China through a mix of cooperation and competition. An unprecedented growth in Sino-Indian bilateral trade has taken place, with China becoming India’s largest trade partner. Yet, this dominant geo-economic narrative until the mid-2000s is increasingly being challenged by the dynamics of competition between the two countries in their shared neighbourhood. This has sharpened over their border dispute impacting Bhutan, new dramatic Chinese economic-focused initiatives in South Asia and an expansion of Chinese influence and presence in the Indian Ocean.