Coping with Modi's India: Nepal's "pull-distance" Diplomacy

As a small country sandwiched between China and India, Nepal has long been the focus of academicattention regarding its diplomatic thinking and foreign policy. Since the Modi government came to power, therelationship between Nepal and India has witnessed a series of fluctuations, with an overall trajectory characterized byebbs and flows. India has adopted a more assertive policy towards Nepal, driven by its hegemonic mindset. In contrast,Nepal has pursued a more proactive foreign policy towards India in the context of domestic political stability. Thisarticle centers on Nepal's perspective and employs the concepts of “equidistance diplomacy” and “boomerang effect”to propose an analytical framework of “pull-distance diplomacy” that scrutinizes Nepal's fundamental logic inimplementing its policy toward India across different phases and on various issues. This article argues that Nepal issituated in a “biased distance situation” that tilts towards India in historical and contemporary contexts. However, withthe Modi government's increasingly pronounced hegemonic behavior and the intensifying strategic competitionbetween China and India, Nepal has opted for an active strategy of projecting the boomerang towards China tostrengthen its bilateral ties. Nonetheless, the ultimate purpose of this behavior is to signal India and enhance itsbargaining power in the negotiation process. Simultaneously, in the process of deploying the boomerang effect, Nepal'snational security and interests have been secured and promoted owing to the strategic pull from India. However, withIndia resorting to various measures to either lure Nepal closer or exert pressure on it, Nepal may encounter morepressure in the long run.