DC’s South Asia policy

The recent escalation between India and Pakistan offered critical insights for analysts and policymakers. One of the most important takeaways for Washington is the strategic risk of disproportionately emphasising its partnership with India while neglecting the need to maintain a balanced engagement with Pakistan. The current inequity risks destabilising the South Asian region.

Despite substantial US investment in India to build it as a counterweight to China, the May 2025 India-Pakistan military confrontation exposed India’s operational and technical limitations. Although Indian military has conventional superiority, it incurred a greater cost of escalation as the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) downed six Indian fighter jets. This setback highlighted India’s key vulnerabilities and raised a critical question: if the Indian military struggled to counter a smaller adversary effectively, would it be able to act as Washington’s frontline actor to deter China – a role the US envisions for India, which New Delhi has been reluctant to embrace?

These developments demonstrate that an ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategy overly centred on building India as a counterweight to China has its obstacles. Such an approach does not reflect the complex on-ground dynamics of the region, which came into the limelight during Pakistan’s retaliation to Indian aggression. This requires careful assessment and recalibration of Washington’s expectations related to India, and especially concerning the South Asian r