Beyond Bilateralism: Can China and India Cooperate in South Asia?

By Constantino Xavier

Normalisation between India and China remains tentative. The regional dimension will require additional effort. China will need to demonstrate sensitivity to Indian interests across the subcontinent and regulate its behavior accordingly; and India will need to both understand how China views South Asia, and accept that China is now a permanent feature of the regional landscape, not a mere temporary intrusion. This will be hard work, forcing both Beijing and New Delhi to break with habits of thought and practice that decades have entrenched.

Can Southeast Asia Safeguard Strategic Autonomy in Critical Minerals as US-China Rivalry Deepens?

By Barbora Valockova

Critical minerals, such as nickel, rare earth elements, cobalt, tin, lithium and copper, now sit at the core of debates on energy security, industrial strategy and geopolitical influence. They underpin the energy transition, advanced manufacturing, and defence industries, and competition to secure their supply chains has become a key arena of strategic contestation, particularly between the US and China. Southeast Asia is a major player in this contest. Indonesia is the world's largest nickel producer and holds the largest share of global nickel reserves. Vietnam has major rare earth deposits. The Philippines is a significant nickel supplier. Myanmar is an important source of heavy rare earths. And Malaysia hosts the Lynas facility, the largest commercial rare earths plant outside China. For a region long characterised by hedging, this mineral wealth has raised the stakes of strategic autonomy: the same resources that confer leverage also invite pressure from both Washington and Beijing.

India-ASEAN Relations in an Evolving Strategic Landscape

By Srinath Raghavan

India and ASEAN are marking 2026 as the “Year of Maritime Cooperation”. The two sides are keen to promote and deepen maritime exchanges in both commercial and defence domains. They had held the first ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise (AIME) in 2023; a second edition is currently in the works. Such targeted initiatives are aimed at imparting momentum to a relationship that is perceived as flagging—even in comparison to India’s own bilateral ties with countries in the region. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision not to attend in-person the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025 was seen as underlining the dip in New Delhi’s interest.

AI in the Indo-Pacific: A Path to Gains or Instability?

By Miguel Gomez

Within the Indo-Pacific, the urgency to understand the implications of artificial intelligence is especially pronounced. Surveys and subsequent reports from the University of Melbourne and the Pew Research Center suggest a distinct divide between several countries in the region and their counterparts in Europe and North America. Whereas the latter appear less trusting of the technology, the former seem more optimistic about the benefits that it brings. Nevertheless, this divergence serves as one of a handful of reasons that motivate this issue of Counterpoint Indo-Pacific in which we ask whether AI in the Indo-Pacific offers a path towards gains or instability.