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India's domestic challenges due to COVID-19 threaten regional, global ambitions: US think-tank
Jun-11-2021

A US think-tank has observed that India's domestic challenges due to COVID-19 crisis have become a threat to its regional and global ambitions. It warned that unless it recovers with the help of allies like the United States, the pandemic could impact the geopolitical balance in the Indo-Pacific. It said as such, it is in the United States' best interests to help India retain its status as a pre-eminent power in South Asia, particularly in view of China's efforts to bolster its position at the expense of the US and India.

It pointed out that at the start of the pandemic, India offered medical assistance to its immediate neighbours and followed vaccine diplomacy in the first three months of 2021 which helped India to project itself as a regional leader, advancing its claim of being a global power in waiting. It noted that the recent surge of COVID-19 in South Asia challenges India's traditional ability to aid its smaller neighbours, a change that could, in turn, affect India's influence in its competition with China. It added that unless India can recover from this surge with the help of allies like the United States, the pandemic could impact the Indo-Pacific's geopolitical balance.

It further said in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, India succeeded in occupying the role of a regional leader. But official complacency, disinclination on the part of government leaders to accept the advice of scientific advisors and reluctance to ramp up vaccine production and distribution has seriously damaged India’s standing.

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