Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: India prepares to host French President Emmanuel Macron as its honored chief visitor on Republic Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates a controversial Hindu temple in Ayodhya, and Pakistan and Iran deescalate after buying and selling cross-border strikes.

French President Emmanuel Macron would be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day festivities this week. Macron wasn’t Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first selection; he deliberate to host U.S. President Joe Biden and different leaders from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad. Biden declined the invitation final month. There is one thing becoming about Macron being this 12 months’s chief visitor. Last July, Modi attended France’s Bastille Day celebrations, 25 years after then-French President Jacques Chirac visited New Delhi because the Republic Day chief visitor to launch a brand new strategic partnership with India.

Macron would be the sixth French chief accorded the distinction of India’s chief visitor on Republic Day and the fourth since 1998. His journey to New Delhi is a chance to showcase the connection between the 2 nations, which shares similarities with a few of India’s deep partnerships—whereas remaining fairly distinct from India’s partnerships with different Western powers.

For almost three a long time, the India-France relationship has been largely freed from stress, bringing to thoughts how Indian officers characterize India’s ties with Russia: as a “time-tested” partnership that has hardly ever if ever skilled a disaster. The arms commerce between New Delhi and Paris can be robust, paying homage to India’s partnerships with the United States and Israel. The three nations are India’s high arms suppliers after Russia—and France exported the most weapons to India between 2017 and 2021.

Much like India’s relations with the opposite members of the Quad (Australia, Japan, and the United States), its ties with France are strengthened by strategic convergences round geopolitics in Asia. India and France each view China’s rising regional affect with concern, and so they every have island territories within the coronary heart of the Indo-Pacific. Unsurprisingly, their strategic pursuits at the moment are coalescing across the want for deeper engagement with the Pacific islands to stability China.

Finally, India-France relations have change into increasingly multifaceted lately, with increasing cooperation in protection, renewable vitality, science, and expertise. This displays a development amongst India’s relations with the United States, the European Union, and Japan, amongst others. All these relationships will be categorized as strategic partnerships—however they attained that standing after Chirac’s go to to New Delhi in 1998.

There is way that units the India-France relationship other than New Delhi’s ties with different shut Western companions. Both advocate for strategic autonomy, even when they every take completely different approaches. India’s strategic autonomy revolves round eschewing alliances, whereas France embraces alliances however nonetheless defies them when doing so serves its personal pursuits. Their insistence on foreign-policy independence furthers frequent strategic objectives. France, for instance, goals to stability each U.S. and Chinese energy within the Indo-Pacific, which India helps.

India has additionally achieved success with France on nuclear energy cooperation, contrasting with New Delhi’s struggles to capitalize on a civil nuclear take care of Washington. Finally, France doesn’t usually criticize India about values-based points reminiscent of human rights and democracy—in contrast to the United States or Canada. That permits France to keep away from a primary set off for tensions within the partnership.

Modi’s plan to convey the Quad leaders to India for Republic Day might have fallen by, however the comfort prize was one other key associate with prime Pacific energy—a testomony to New Delhi’s convening clout, and to its standing as a significant international participant with loads of associates to select from.

Modi inaugurates Ram Mandir. On Monday, Modi consecrated a brand new Hindu temple to the god Rama within the metropolis of Ayodhya to a lot fanfare. The Ram Mandir, which is meant to commemorate Rama’s birthplace, has change into considered one of India’s greatest non secular flash factors. In 1992, Hindu extremists destroyed a mosque that stood on the bottom for hundreds of years, finally paving the way in which for the Ram Mandir. During the ceremony this week, Modi proclaimed that “our Ram has arrived.”

The ambiance on Monday was usually festival-like, with politicians and celebrities becoming a member of non secular devotees in a day of celebrations throughout India. The inauguration will doubtless sharpen tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India, however it is going to strengthen Modi’s already-formidable prospects for reelection this spring by galvanizing his Hindu nationalist base. The prime minister can now declare that he has fulfilled a long-standing promise.

Quick decision to Iran-Pakistan disaster. Last week, Pakistan’s relations with Iran all of the sudden plunged into deep crisis after Iranian forces launched a cross-border strike towards a separatist group that targets Iran from bases in Pakistan. Pakistan shortly retaliated with a strike of its personal towards separatist militants primarily based in Iran. Tehran and Islamabad each mentioned their respective strikes eradicated terrorists, however they every blamed the opposite for killing civilians, together with youngsters.

However, the disaster ended as shortly because it began, with the 2 sides pledging to deescalate and resume diplomatic ties. This speedy decision can partly be attributed to the dynamics of Pakistan-Iran ties: The bilateral relationship is comparatively pleasant, and dialogue mechanisms are in place to defuse tensions. Just as vital, neither Islamabad nor Tehran can afford additional escalations: Both are experiencing critical financial stress, political turmoil, and inside safety threats together with terrorism.

Sri Lanka’s controversial web regulation. Sri Lanka is the newest nation in South Asia to roll out a web-based security regulation that critics worry will probably be used as a pretext to crack down on dissent, following related legal guidelines in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s Parliament approved the measure a day after it was launched by the general public safety minister.

Colombo has pitched the regulation as a plan to curb on-line fraud, abuse, information theft, and disinformation. But an open letter signed by civil society groups on Jan. 19 warns that provisions within the invoice compel on-line customers and suppliers to take away content material or restrict entry on “vague, ambiguous, and overbroad” grounds, suggesting the federal government may goal content material it doesn’t like.

Last week, a teenage boy within the Maldives suffered a stroke and died after a protracted delay getting him airlifted from his dwelling on an remoted island to a hospital within the capital of Malé. While the total story stays unclear, native media within the Maldives reported that President Mohamed Muizzu’s refusal to permit Indian army plane to function within the nation—a part of a marketing campaign promise—might have contributed to the delay. Indian helicopters are sometimes used for medical airlifts within the Maldives.

The political opposition has slammed Muizzu for the tragedy, with one lawmaker tweeting, “People shouldn’t have to pay with their lives to satisfy the President’s animosity towards India.” The incident underscores the home political dangers for Muizzu of pushing his “India Out” coverage. He has requested for all Indian army personnel to go away the Maldives by March 15, and parliamentary elections happen two days later.