India’s foreign policy in the 75th year of its Independence has evolved with changes in the international situation with some continuities dictated by perennial interests: managing our neighbourhood, protecting our borders, maintaining sovereignty in decision-making and ensuring its economic well-being. people. Above all this is India’s determination to play a role in world affairs that reflects its size, human resources, economic potential and civilizational assets.
After Independence, India actively supported the decolonization process, opposed apartheid in South Africa rooted in racism, promoted Afro-Asian solidarity to resist the historical dominance of the West, and campaigned for the elimination of nuclear weapons that threatened the survival of humanity. To keep its foreign policy choices in check, India refused to take sides in the Cold War and along with some like-minded leaders founded the non-alignment movement. India’s foreign policy was seen as overly moralistic due to some of these positions.
Some of the old battles that India fought have emerged in new forms. Decolonization may have been achieved, but the global system is still dominated by the West. India seeks a reform of the global political and financial institutions created by the West after the end of World War II, but without much success so far. India seeks permanent membership in the UN Security Council so that it can participate in decision-making on matters of global concern, especially peace and security. Minister Jaishankar has rightly pointed out that the exclusion of India, which in time will be the world’s most populous country and the third largest economy, would question the representative nature of the UNSC. India has now become a nuclear power as it was left with no choice but to act pragmatically in a world where hard power is still the most effective diplomatic currency.
The non-aligned movement has lost its former importance with the end of the Cold War and India no longer refers to non-alignment as the basis of its foreign policy. In the new context, we now talk about India following a policy of multiple outreach or issue-based outreach. This explains the transformations in our ties with the US that include the signing of various major defense agreements and essential defense purchases, designation as a Major Defense Partner, elaborate military exercises as well as Quad membership and a commitment to the Indo-Pacific concept. . This also explains our membership in BRICS, SCO and the continuation of the Russia-India-China dialogue. In other words, we are pursuing our interests in all forums without exclusivity and without entering into alliances with any group of states.
This ability to be part of groups, which may be strategically opposed to each other, and within those groups to have different power relations with constituent members, can be described as India maintaining its strategic autonomy in between power shifts occurring at the international level. When India was relatively weak, its leadership in the non-aligned world gave it room for maneuver in foreign policy. Today, India is an important player on the global stage because of its strength as a rising power. It is a member of the G20, is invited to the G7 meetings and is a key player in the climate change negotiations based on its own initiatives in this field. It has a strong voice on global health issues from the way it drew on its own resources to fight the Covid-19 pandemic more efficiently than some advanced countries could, and supplied vaccines not only to developing countries in need, but also against Covid. 19 drugs even in developed countries.
India is beginning to gradually remove the lack of confidence in dealing with China. China’s policy of engagement, despite its aggressive behavior towards us, has not been abandoned, but there is more clarity that China will remain our adversary and India must resist it alone as well as form partnerships with others to restrained its expansionism. India stood up to China in Doklam and is now facing it militarily in Ladakh.
Today, there is a much greater focus on national security in policy making. Defense sector reforms, emphasis on the creation of domestic productive capacity in defense production, involvement of the private sector to achieve this objective, increased defense exports to strengthen partnerships with key countries, rapid improvement of military infrastructure in border areas are all part of this new perspective.
This view includes much greater attention to maritime security issues, particularly in the Indian Ocean, not least because of China’s maritime strategy in our region. SAGAR, the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and the earlier Indian Ocean Maritime Symposium, are concepts that India has initiated to position itself more visibly and effectively in matters of maritime security. India has set up an Indian Ocean Information Fusion Center in Gurugram to enhance maritime safety and security. A strong maritime partnership has been established with France. Closer to home, at the NSA level, maritime security cooperation has been established between India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
All Indian governments prioritize stable and friendly relations with their neighbours, even if this objective has never been achieved to the extent desired. Pakistan is, of course, a special case. Our neighbors have always sought to balance India’s influence and power in various ways, be it by playing the China card against us or by sowing domestic suspicions about India’s desire to dominate and its interference in their internal affairs. This will continue and we will have to live with this reality. Today, however, a major effort is underway to connect our neighbors with us in positive ways, particularly through connectivity initiatives. Relations with Bangladesh have improved a lot. Nepal remains difficult to deal with despite many attempts to bring it closer to us. Frequent visits to these countries at the prime ministerial level has become a norm, as well as the use of religious and cultural ties to promote ties with them, unlike in the past.
With Pakistan, the terms of engagement have been fundamentally changed with the revision of Articles 370 of the Indian Constitution, separating Ladakh from J&K and forming them into two new Union Territories. This was a bold decision given the international profile that the Kashmir issue had gained since our Independence, the Western pressures on us on human rights issues and our domestic political management of the situation in J&K, pressures that continue but without same impact as before. our policies or even international public opinion in general. India has removed the Kashmir issue from any resumption of dialogue with Pakistan, which India has firmly conditioned on Pakistan rejecting jihadist terrorism against us. India has now reached out to the Taliban in Afghanistan to pragmatically protect its long-term stakes there and outwit Pakistan by sending a message of friendship to the Afghan people.
One big change that helps with Kashmir and terrorism is the big change that has taken place in our relations with conservative Gulf monarchies that have distanced themselves from Islamic extremism in an effort to modernize and prepare themselves for a post-oil world. We now get cooperation on counter-terrorism issues from them, besides opening the prospects of security cooperation. We have managed to establish close ties with Israel without affecting our relations with the Arab world or Iran, with whom we have kept communication channels open. The recent meeting at the summit level of I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE and USA) demonstrates the new creativity of Indian foreign policy. Turkey has become a thorn in our side, however, fueled by its Islamizing tendencies under President Erdogan.
The Ukraine crisis has demonstrated India’s ability to assert its strategic autonomy in refusing to condemn Russia despite pressure from the West. We have not wanted to jeopardize our long-standing friendly ties with Russia on an issue for which US/NATO policies are also responsible. By supplying wheat to countries in need following shortages created by the Ukraine conflict, India has brightened its international image as a country that can provide food aid internationally when needed, in addition to providing aid to millions of its own countrymen. food during the social stress created by the covid19 Pandemic.
India’s foreign policy is looking at all possible ways to improve its position in the world. Putting Yoga and Ayurveda on the global map is part of this, as is intensified engagement with our diaspora. The fact that an Indian prime minister can hold a joint meeting with the prime ministers of the Nordic countries as a group, the Central Asian states, the Caribbean Forum and the Pacific Island States Forum shows how much India’s stature as an interlocutor has grown. IMF or OECD projections see India as having the highest growth rates in the coming years among major economies and India becoming the third largest economy possibly by 2030. This widens the scope for more Indian diplomacy. confident and effective on the international stage despite all the challenges India still faces. This is a major change in Indian foreign policy 75 years after Independence.
Kanwal Sibal is a former Indian Foreign Secretary. He was India’s ambassador to Turkey, Egypt, France and Russia. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the position of this publication.
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