Ajit Doval

So what?  Two nuclear-armed neighbors keeping a two-decade-old talks channel alive, rather than letting it lapse, is a modest but real opening for wider bilateral normalization that could extend to trade and customs cooperation stalled since their 2020 border clashes — watch for any accompanying signal on reopening direct trade routes or easing visa restrictions as the more concrete test of follow-through. A stalled or deadlocked round, by contrast, would signal Beijing and New Delhi are content to manage the dispute indefinitely rather than resolve it.

So what?  A functioning BIMSTEC security track gives India a multilateral platform to coordinate counter-trafficking and maritime-security cooperation with partners bordering the Bay of Bengal's smuggling and irregular-migration routes, an opening for any liaison relationship built around regional capacity-building. Watch whether the summit produces a concrete transnational-crime or counter-terrorism cooperation mechanism, rather than just a joint statement, as the signal these talks are converting into operational cooperation.