New Delhi, July 28 -- Bihar Governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd) on Tuesday said India's strategic neighbourhood now extends far beyond its immediate land borders, asserting that the country's security interests stretch from the Mediterranean approaches to the Western Pacific as it seeks to emerge as an effective middle power.

Delivering the 9th Jasjit Singh Memorial Lecture on 'India's Neighbourhood and Security Challenges', organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), Hasnain said India could no longer view its neighbourhood through a narrow South Asian lens.

"India is no longer merely a South Asian power managing neighbours. It is an ever-emerging civilizational and maritime power managing a strategic ecosystem, stretchin...