By Kavita Mistry 
Maintaining that “regionalism” is going to be important in the emerging world order, former president and prime minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe has mooted the idea of India taking a lead in ensuring the emergence of South Asia as the “most powerful region”.
Participating in a session titled ‘In the hood: The new forces shaping subcontinental geopolitics’ at the fifth edition of The Hindu Huddle organised by The Hindu Group, in Bengaluru, Mr. Wickremesinghe observed that the South Asian region would account for a population size of 2.7 billion in the total world population of 9.8 billion while its combined economy would be around 43 billion dollars.
“You will have three nuclear powers in this region. This is going to be the most powerful region in the world,” he said, while adding a rider that: “We can do so if get out of the traditional mindset.”
The former Sri Lankan president said geopolitics was witnessing a great shift, while pointing out, “We had a unipolar world at the end of the World War-II that later became bipolar (with USSR and US being major players) and then unipolar again. It is becoming bipolar again (with US and China being the major players).” He wondered if it could become tripolr by 2050 where US, China and India would be the major players, particularly with India expected to be the third biggest economy by then.
Mr. Wickremesinghe observed that the South Asian region would be a larger commonwealth than British commonwealth and it had several common threads in terms of religion, culture, civilisation, literature and philosophy among other things.
Referring to the present global scenario, he said: “We are seeing a world in which US President Donald Trump has disrupted the WTO. He has challenged the global order made by the US itself. It is like a cat eating the kitten. We all look upto the US as the growth engine. But it is shaken now. So regionalism is going to be more and more important, he said, while stressing the need for emergence of South Asia as the powerful region under the leadership of India.
Referring to the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, he argued that the transformation of economy should go on even amidst such issues. “Development should go on despite terrorism as it is a phenomenon we need to live with,” he said.
Welcoming such an idea, Mr. T. S. Tirumurti, former permanent representative of India to the United Nations, said: “India should take a geopolitical role that goes beyond the sub-continent. The sooner we do it, the more important it will be.”
Pointing out that democracy had become more stronger in the last 15 years in the South Asian region despite problems in a couple countries including Bangladesh, Mr. Tirumurti said the youth were playing a key role. This would help in the process of emergence of South Asia as the major regional power, he felt.
Stating that security and geo politics are the two sides of the same coin, he argued that India needs to factor in security issues like conflict with Pakistan in its economic development.
He stressed the need for India to become a net provider of prosperity to the region by opening up its economies to others. “It is unrealistic for India to even talk of economic development without taking on the geo-political role or securing neighbourhood and being a net security provider not just for the neighbours, but for the larger region.
Former National Security Advisor to India, M. K. Narayanan, too hailed the idea of South Asia becoming a powerful region as the single most important idea that he had heard in the last decade.
Mr. N. Ram, director, The Hindu Group, observed that Mr. Wickremesinghe’s vision for South Asia was full of hope. However, he expressed concern that, there were democratic deficits. Particularly referring to India, he said: “There is a huge democratic deficit with India. The states are being attacked, Media is being intimidated. We have a serious problem of authoritarianism.”
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Published – May 10, 2025 03:22 pm IST