She is also an Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington DC. Samaranayake specialises in the analysis of Indian Ocean security, small states’ navigation of great power competition, and the relations of smaller South Asian countries with China, India, and the US.

 In this conversation, Samaranayake talks about, among other things, the similarities and differences of the ground realities in Nepal and Bangladesh, the relations of smaller South Asian states with big powers, how Nepal’s internal politics appears from the outside, the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative, and Nepal’s handling of the competing influences of India, China and the US.