India's Cross-Border Infrastructure Initiatives in South and Southeast Asia

In the last decade, infrastructure development initiatives across borders, both in South and Southeast Asia, have emerged as a major tool of economic diplomacy, practiced both by China and India. Indeed, it was China's successful experience of linking with the neighbourhood that motivated India to try to extend influence as well as trade beyond its borders. India's success at developing cross-border connectivity is still quite modest compared to China's achievements, but in the long term, India's connectivity drive in its immediate and extended neighbourhood should contribute significantly to supporting its economic growth and providing a counterbalance to Chinese influence in the region.