In line with India's 'neighbourhood first' policy, Bhutan was on Saturday allocated the largest share of Rs 2,150 crore as development aid in the Union Budget for 2025-26 followed by Rs 700 crore to Nepal and Rs 600 crore to the Maldives.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was allocated a total of Rs 20,516 crore as against the current fiscal's budget estimate of Rs 22,154 crore and revised estimate of Rs 25,277 crore.
Like for 2024-25, an amount of Rs 100 crore has been set aside for the Chabahar port project.
Located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich Iran's southern coast, the Chabahar port is being developed by India and Iran to boost connectivity and trade ties.
The total overseas development partnership portfolio for 2025-26 has been pegged at Rs 6,750 crore, which is nearly 33 per cent of the allocation made to the MEA.
The outlay for overseas development assistance is an increase of about 20 per cent over current fiscal's allocation of Rs 5,667 ...