The long-standing mistrust between the two most populous countries in South Asia is the driving force behind a shift in regional ties, as Islamabad befriends the new leaders of post-revolutionary Bangladesh while New Delhi courted Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The two countries, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, which were split apart during the chaotic end of British colonial rule in 1947, have fought numerous wars and are still fierce rivals.
In January, New Delhi denied that it had carried out covert operations to kill anti-Indian militants on Pakistani soil.
“You can’t have snakes in your backyard and expect them to only bite your neighbours,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters in dismissal of the accusations.
Since the Taliban took back control of Kabul over four years ago, ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have also deteriorated.

Islamabad has charged Taliban leaders with not controlling militants who it claims are staging strikes on Afghan territory that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Pakistani security forces.
In December, Pakistan carried out lethal airstrikes in border areas with Afghanistan, which sparked cross-border gunfire.
India has taken action to take advantage of the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, which initially appears to be an odd match for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalism.
Hassan Abbas, a professor of international affairs at the National Defence University in Washington, told AFP that India has been following this course steadily for a while.
“They don’t want the Taliban to give space to any group that is going to be a bigger threat to India in the long run,” he said, adding that the possibility of “annoying Pakistan” was also appealing to New Delhi.
In January, Taliban foreign minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi met with India’s top career diplomat, Vikram Misri, in Dubai.
Jaiswal called the meeting the “highest level of engagement” to date and stated that New Delhi was determined to “strengthen our longstanding relationship with the people of Afghanistan.” Muttaqi, in turn, “expressed his hope for the expansion of relations,” according to a spokesman.
Jaiswal said it was agreed during the conference to “promote the use” of India’s $370 million expansion of Iran’s Chabahar container port “for supporting trade and commercial activities” to landlocked Afghanistan.
Chabahar is located close west of Gwadar port, which is regarded as a key component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative’s infrastructure development in Pakistan.
Despite a recent diplomatic thaw, India has long been concerned about China’s expanding regional power and the competition for influence in South Asia between the two most populous nations in the world.
Following the meeting in Dubai, the Times of India published an editorial stating that critical regional ties were being reshaped by New Delhi’s “quiet yet deliberate engagement” with the Taliban.