Thru’ the Desk of the Editor
To achieve its goals, a country has to depend upon other countries. This interdependence compels all countries to formulate their own policies and guiding principles which can be called ‘foreign policy’ and defined as set of principles, decisions and means adopted and followed by a country for securing formulated goals of national interest during course of its relations with other countries. Foreign policy is a framework within which government of a country conducts its relations with outside world in different formats - bilateral, regional and multilateral or global. Foreign policy of a nation is shaped by trajectory of formation of the nation itself, determined by various domestic, regional and global challenges and guided by its sine quo non and prevailing international situation.
The Foreign Policy of India has following important goals:
1. To protect India from traditional and non-traditional threats: The main objective of India’s Foreign Policy is to secure its national interests which includes securing borders to protect territorial integrity, countering cross-border terrorism, energy, food and cyber security, creation of world-class infrastructure, disarmament, regional stability, international peace, non-discriminatory global trade practices.
2. To create external environment conducive for India’s inclusive development: India needs external inputs to sustain its growth trajectory. India’s on-going programmes like Make in India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Skill India, Clean India, infrastructure development need Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), and transfer of technology. Development Diplomacy was added by integrating economic and political diplomacy.
3. To engage and protect Indian Diaspora: One objective of foreign policy is to engage and protect 20 million diaspora of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and derive maximum benefits from their presence all over the world.
4. To ensure that India’s voice is heard in global forums: To ensure that India’s voice is heard in global forums and enable India to influence world opinion on global issues like terrorism, climate change, disarmament, reforms of global governance institutions.
The evolution of Indian foreign policy can be traced to diplomacy in Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Kamandaki’s Nitisara. It has incorporated historical elements of continuity and change. It has evolved from idealism under Nehru, to period of realpolitik, from mid-1960s to mid-1980s and from economically driven pragmatism of 1990s to strategic and assertive vision of current dispensation under leadership of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi. Ever since Modi government came to power in May 2014, outreach of government in field of foreign policy has been very extensive, covering small, medium and big nations, where ministerial delegations have visited more than 180 countries in more than nine years of its rule. “India stands equal to all and sees no country as an adversary”, said PM Narendra Modi, spelling out India’s foreign policy. This diplomatic outreach underlined India’s commitment to building relationships with countries, big and small, in spirit of VasudhaivaKutumbakam (World is One Family) related to this is concept of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas. The entire world community is part of one single large global family and members of family must live together in peace and harmony, work and grow together and have trust in each other for mutual benefits. India’s accelerated diplomatic engagements helped qualitative upgrade in existing bilateral relationships, enhanced coordination on range of regional and global issues, revitalised and reinvigorated relations and opened new doors for mutually nourishing partnerships.
On 26th May 2014, Narendra Modi started his tenure as Prime Minister and emerged as dynamic leader in field of foreign policy. PM Modi has instituted a paradigm shift – foreign policy aiming to create a symbiotic relationship between domestic goals of India and its foreign policy agendas. The focus on ease of doing business, development, modernisation, Digital India, Start-up India, Skill India, make in India aim to secure India’s interests in a competitive world. After cold war,India began pursuing its foreign policy with renewed pragmatism, looking beyond Non-Aligned Movement. India is today part of diverse organisations like G-20, East Asia Summit, BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Council. PM Modi has engaged with all major global powers, developing closer ties with U.S., strengthening cooperation with Australia, Japan, while working to regain strategic space in Indian Ocean Region. PM Modi has indicated that he is willing to work with anyone and everyone to secure Indian interests, to take India on path of economic growth by widening pool of supportive countries through constructive positions on issues on global agenda. Under leadership of PM Modi, India has been able to recast foreign policy with outside world on its own terms, with twin objectives of making India world’s third largest economy and key player in emerging multi-polar world. The way India interacts with and reacts to other nations of the world has been prime mover of India’s foreign policy. The new alignments have allowed India to have proactive and de-hyphenated links with other players in the world. Illustrative examples are given below:
Neighbourhood First: Narendra Modi tried to proactively prioritise South Asia in India’s foreign policy matrix with ‘Neighbourhood First’ approach and invited his counterparts from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – members of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to his inauguration in May 2014.This was exercise in public diplomacy, as no previous prime minister had made such grand gesture, with swearing-in ceremony seen as ‘domestic event’. PM Modi here announced his ‘Neighbourhood First’ initiative on prioritising relations with SAARC member states. The project intended to give boost to trade and investments and address geopolitical tensions. India was able to settle long-standing border dispute with Bangladesh and improve relations with Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan.
Act East Policy: PM Modi repackaged Indian foreign policy on civilizational ethos and values as is evident in ‘Act East’ Policy where soft power tools of culture, civilisation and religion are used to expand India’s footprint and sphere of influence in East and Southeast Asia. The major focus of Act East policy is to improve and strengthen relations, economic integration, defence ties, sustained economic growth with ASEAN and other East Asian Countries.
Link West Policy: Link West Policy aims at strengthening ties with Middle East and Gulf countries. The Gulf region is India’s major economic partner and source of oil and gas, which resulted in enhanced trade and economic relations with Gulf Cooperation Council countries. India has been able to balance its act in West Asia by being able to de-hyphenate Israel and Palestine and maintaining stronger ties with countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar.
India and Russia: India-Russia relationship has considerable significance on regional and global power dynamics. USSR assisted in constructing India’s first born-steel plants in Bhilai and Bokaro, antibiotics factory in Rishikesh, launch of Indian Satellite Aryabhata. Continuity persists in joint plans with Russia – design and manufacture of supersonic cruise missiles BrahMos, fifth generation fighter jet, preparation of Chandrayan 2. India has purchased five S-400 supersonic air defence systems from Russia, Kamov 226 helicopters would be manufactured in India. In 2010, Strategic Partnership was elevated to Special and Privileged Partnership. West imposed economic sanctions on Russia as a result of Russia-Ukraine war. In such grave situation, India purchased crude oil from Russia at discounted rate on win-win basis.
India and U.S.: U.S. accorded status of Defence Partner to India which puts India on par with NATO Allies. U.S. is keen that India acts as counterweight to China in Asia. U.S. Australia and Japan along with India form QUAD. The signing of Logistics Exchange Memorandum Agreement with U.S. will go long way in strengthening India’s defence capabilities.
India and Africa: India’s relations with African countries had remained low for long time. India looked to extend relationship in recent years. In 21st century, India’s perception of Africa is shaped by three considerations: economic cooperation, security cooperation and engaging diaspora. India’s foreign policy priorities towards Africa have been primarily driven by India’s economic interests and quest for international recognition. India has worked affirmatively for development of Africa and has provided support to Africa at world forums and helped African nations through capacity building, technology transfer and technical assistance. Under India’s presidency G20 took historic decision to make African Union permanent member of G20.
India and China: During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India in September 2014, India extended hand of friendship and conveyed clear message that two countries must work together so that 21s century could belong to Asia. India-China relations did not develop that way. China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative was thorny issue as it involves issue of sovereignty. Doklam face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in September 2017 posed serious threat to bilateral relations. In 2017, India stood against China’s One Belt One Road initiative on grounds of sovereignty, principles of equity and transparency.
India and Pakistan: India advocates policy of engagement over aggression and believes that retaliation and confrontation can only complicate matters and war is no solution. This applies to Pakistan – origin of state-sponsored terrorism targeted at India. Strong messages emanate from India each time it is targeted. Surgical Strikes to target terrorist-launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Indian territory in September 2016 is one such example. Air-strike at terrorist camps at Balakote in February 2019 in retaliation to Pulwama terrorist attack is another.
ASEAN–India Summit: India stressed on greater connectivity with Asian countries on basis of commerce, cultural links and discussed different ways of increasing trade.
International Agency for Solar Technologies and Applications: PM Modi successfully able to bring together 120 countries to form a solar alliance.
G-20 2023: The theme under India’s Presidency of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ is very apt as it signalled need for purpose and unity of action of all member countries for world’s future, where India seeks to find pragmatic global solutions for wellbeing of all.
PM Modi’s foreign policy reflects fundamentals of a model where India’s foreign policy is seen to be merging into regional policy taking India to greater heights, making India a major strategic power. India’s foreign policy besides being an instrument for domestic development, security and prosperity, is positively contributing to global developments and meeting regional and global challenges. A multi-polar world is conducive to India’s development given India’s unique ability of maintaining balanced relations with countries globally. India’s global outreach to old and new stakeholders was on display at G20 2023 is final trend shaping New Delhi’s foreign policy aspirations. This was a pragmatic pursuit of clearly defined objectives by building ad-hoc coalitions of like-minded actors. A more self-confident and self-assured India is today charting a new course in Global politics. India today has capacities and capabilities to contribute to global stability. The aim for India’s foreign policy will not be to interfere in other disputes that are occurring beyond India’s region, but certainly to see for support for transition to a multi-polar world that is as less destabilising as possible because India’s interests lie in arresting further fragmentation of international system and India wants interdependence to continue to prevail. Indian foreign policy has shown both, depth and maturity and the adaptability to how to address these issues going forward.
Articles in this edition of the Journal examine various dimensions of Diplomacy and Security related issues.
