International Relations

Soft Power

Coined by American political scientist Joseph Nye, soft power is defined as the ability of an actor to change the behaviour of another actor to achieve a favourable end through attraction rather than coercion.

According to Nye, a country’s soft power can come from 3 sources:

1. Culture: Able to attract other countries
   1. Nepal, Bhutan and South-East Asia: Buddhism
   2. Spreading of the idea of Yoga
2. Foreign policy
   1. India’s position on Palestine-Israel conflict
3. Political Values: Lives up to it home and abroad
   1. India-South Africa relations: Gandhian values of non-violence and South-South cooperation

Soft power cannot be a substitute for hard power.

Bilateral Relations

India-Korea

Current Scenario: North Korea is enhancing its nuclear weapon capability and emerging as a threat to regional security that has heightened the arms race in the region involving U.S, South-Korea and Japan. India has firmly opposed North-Korea’s nuclear proliferation by:

• Imposing ban on trade: India aligned with the U.S policy to ban all trade to North Korea
• Stopping all capacity building initiatives for North Korean Citizens in India
• Launch of Korea Plus: An exclusive channel for inflow of South Korean investment

India’s increased economic engagement with Seoul and lack of cooperation in economic and political spheres with Pyongyang arises from the need to contain North Korea which is beneficial for India’s regional security and economic interests as well as its approach to global nuclear non-proliferation regime as a responsible nuclear state.

India- South Korea

• Korea Plus
• Civil Nuclear Deal: Although India is a non-NPT signatory, Seoul entered into a civil nuclear deal with India on account of its clean NPT record and is now a key supporter for India’s membership into the NSG
• Naval Cooperation: Joint Naval Exercises

Indian Diaspora in Qatar Crisis

• • As neighbouring countries have cut off its supply lines to Qatar, there is a shortage of supply of basic demands and commodities that leads to a steep increase in prices.

• The large number of working migrant population, including Indians has to now spend a high proportion of their wages on basic commodities.
• Migrant workers are also facing a blockade with Bahrain, Saudi and UAE not processing Qatari Visas. Hence many of them are unable to reach Qatar.

India – UAE 

Maritime Security: Recently, India and UAE announced joint naval exercise to preserve maritime security in the Indian Ocean and Gulf Region

Counter-Terrorism: A joint document deploring double standards adopted by countries and affirming UAE’s support for India’s proposed convention on terrorism at the United Nations.

Cybersecurity: Joint research and development centres of excellence to fight cyber threats will be expedited

Investment: UAE is investing in India’s National Investment Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) through its sovereign wealth fund (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority)

India-Uganda E-visa introduction

• India has included Uganda in its list of countries to which an electronic visa is sufficient to travel.
• India has good business and trade relations with the African nation.
• Enabled easier travel compared to the normal visa process and enables better people to people interaction and India’s significant Diaspora presence has encouraged the idea of an e-visa
• India and Uganda share cooperation in the energy, automobile, pharmacbtical, space research and peaceful use of atomic energy

India- Mali

• 20% of cotton exports from Mali find their way to India
• Track 2 diplomacy with business enterprises engaged directly in cotton trade
• Mali is currently engaged in efforts to incentivize Indian entrepreneurial investment in the textile field

China’s Influence in South Asia

• China has invested in several projects in South Asian countries as part of its chequebook diplomacy and peaceful rise doctrine – by which China alludes the fact that the growth of China as a powerful nation is in the best interests of all Asian countries
• In Male, Indian investment was turned down in favour of Chinese investments
• In Nepal, China is building railway and road linkages and also the airport of Pokhara
• China is also financing the Hambantota port in Srilanka and owns 80% of it. India aspires to develop the Mattala port in Hambantota and has launched the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement in pursuit of the same
• China is also the key defence supplier for Bangladesh and is investing heavily in its infrastructure and energy projects

India’s Counter

• Restoring SAARC to improve relations with the neighbourhood and reduce China’s influence
• SAARC’s decline after the URI attacks have loosened the bonds, hence making it easier for China to make inroads into several South Asian countries
• Historically, countries in the neighbourhood see China as the one who delivers while India remains the promising country alone. Hence India must fast track its investment and projects in neighbouring countries to enhance credibility for its projects
• India should leverage the cultural homogeneity it shares with its neighbours which the China does not possess to ensure fruitful relations characterised by mutual respect and common interest

BRICS Declares JeM and LeT as Terrorist Groups

• Denotes hyphenating of China’s relationship of India and Pakistan
• Can be seen as a decline in the China-Pakistan nexus and the special relationship Beijing had with Islamabad
• Displays commitment on counter-terrorism by all BRICS nations including China
• China reverted its stand on designating Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed as an international terrorist putting a technical hold on UNSC’s bid to ban him. China had earlier expressed its willingness on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Xiamen.

INDIA-CANADA

Areas of Cooperation

Energy Security: Canada-India ministerial energy dialogue with particular focus on electricity, energy efficiency and renewable energy

India and Canada are also cooperating in civil nuclear energy production

Trade and Investment: The CEPA and Bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BFIPAPA) between the member countries aim to increase the flow of trade and investment between countries increasing market access and job opportunities for both nations

Movement of People: Under the Global Skills Strategy, India and Canada have committed to liberal movement of highly skilled individuals from India to Canada. This attains greater importance in the context of stricter norms applied for the skilled individuals in U.S under the HI-B visa regime

Strategic Cooperation: India and Canada’s avenues for strategic cooperation are limited by geography and lack of common interests. However, both countries have agreed to improve security cooperation by institutionalizing strategic dialogues at National Security Adviser (NSA) and foreign minister levels

Concerns

Pro-Separatist Sentiments: Canada has not been able to convincingly reassure India of its support for a united India in lieu of rising pro-Khalistan sentiments among Canadian Sikhs. This has soured political cooperation between the countries

Limited Economic Engagements: Geography and differences in industrial structures have pulled back investments inter-alia the countries.

Little Strategic Cooperation: Canada does not figure in many of India’s urgent strategic objectives-  maritime security of the Indo-Pacific, multipolar Asia and balancing relations with Pakistan and China

External Balancing

External balancing, that is, the forging of military cooperation with one state to deter or defeat a threat posed by another, is one of the principal means by which states cause and enhance security for themselves. Such an external balancing may not be necessarily sourced from a formal treaty. The alliance between Israel and US an illustration of the same.

India’s own policy of External Balancing

Countering China: Post the 1962 war, India sought and built treaties with Soviet, U.S and U.K as a part of its external balancing policy to counter the military threat posed by China

Eg: India’s signing of joint training programmes with the US and the UK

The inking of Indo-Soviet Peace Treaty of peace and friendship in 1971

How India’s Foreign Relationships is @ the Behest of U.S?

• West Asia: U.S is decreasing its number of troops in Afghanistan and is ceding more space to Russia. India is hence at a risk as it is a primary partner of a nation whose military presence is on the decline compared to a more nascent alliance.
• The U.S has now adopted a policy of principled realism whereby they would move for an open-ended military engagement in Afghanistan to induce political stability and counter terrorist attacks. It has identified India to be a partner in its Afghan policy advocating New Delhi to assist Afghanistan in economic and developmental aid while at the same time terming Pakistan as a safe haven for terrorists
• Arabia: Trump’s move to isolate Iran further emboldened by Arabian countries’ severing its ties with Qatar has repercussions on India’s relationship with Iran. Iran is India’s key ally especially in the view of a transit route to central and West Asia as well as its oil reserves. However Fazar-B reserves have now been provided to Russian company and Chabahar port may not be exclusively used for India severely compromising its strategic significance. Hence India is finding it difficult to engage fruitfully with Tehran in the aftermath of global geo politics.
• South China Sea: S has weakened its stance on South China Sea as the reference to UNCLOS is missing from the reiteration of Obama-Modi joint strategic vision. Moreover, India is the fulcrum of U.S’ Pivot to Asia policy.
• Multilateral Diplomacy: S has walked out of Paris Climate Agreement and the TPP. Its isolationist and protectionist nature demands greater proactive action by other member nations to compensate for the reduced contribution by a nation as large and crucial as the United States. India hence has greater responsibility in mitigating climate change and ensuring free and fair trade.

INDIA-U.K.

Economic Cooperation:

1. For Free and Fair Trade: India and UK have committed to an India-UK Trade Partnership that aims to promote a rule-based international trade that strongly opposes unilateral action that seek to undermine the system through force or coercion.
2. Promoting Bilateral Trade: The India-U.K. trade partnership seeks to promote trade with focus on life sciences, IT, food and drink

Challenges in Economic Domain

1. Issue of Economic Offenders: Britain has provided a relatively safe haven to economic offenders from India rejecting requests for extradition. This could prove to be a point of discord in economic relations between the country
2. Brexit: U.K’s exit out of the EU necessitates India to revamp its trade calculations that poses a challenge to rework India’s bilateral trade with the U.K

Cultural Cooperation

Colonial Legacy: India and Britain share many aspects with regard to political system, parliamentary form of government, English education system, British architecture and Christianity that can be traced to the colonial periods.

Diaspora: India has a significant diaspora presence in U.K. who are active participants in civil society organizations, political parties, local governments and corporate houses. They are visible participants and contributors to Britain’s political, economic and social spheres so much so that they can play a pivotal rule in influencing India-U.K foreign policy much similar to the effect of Indian diaspora in U.S in concluding the India-U.S civil nuclear deal

INDIA-RUSSIA

CONNECTIVITY PROJECTS

INSTC (International North-South Corridor)

INSTC aims to connect India with Central Asian Countries and to Europe to improve its economic engagement with the view to boost trade relations through ease of movement of freight goods. It forms the corner stone of India’s Look West policy that has connectivity to hitherto unconnected West and Central Asia as one of its primary targets

Route of INSTC

Kandla Port- Bandar-e-Abbaz(Iran)- Bandar-e-Ansali-Ashtrakhan(Russia)- St.Petersburg

Chennai-Vladivostok Maritime Corridor

• Connect Russia with South Asia, North-East Asia and the Pacific region
• Logistics Savings: Reduce time taken to transfer cargo from 40 days to 24 days through Europe
• Aims to leverage resource rich far east Russian regions which has high investment potential
• Diversify India’s maritime trade route with South Asian and South-East Asian nations

Cooperation in Nuclear Energy Field

                India and Russia signed the “Strategic Vision for Strengthening Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy”.  It allows both countries to explore opportunities for sourcing materials, equipment and services from Indian industry for construction of Russian designed nuclear power plants in third world countries. India is currently contemplating joining a trilateral cooperation with Bangladesh and Russia with regard to the Rooppur Nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

India currently uses Russian made nuclear reactors to produce atomic energy in Kudankulam and Russia has been actively providing technological and expertise assistance to India.

Growing Indifferences

• Cold War 2.0: The global geo-political alliances have undergone rapid transformations from the period of Cold War. Currently, there is a growing Russia-Pak-China alliance that seems to be pitted against U.S-Japan-India alliance. Russia-Pak-China alliance is evidenced by:
  • Military Exercises and Political Engagement
  • Joint exploration of Arctic Shelf
  • Consensus on CPEC and BRI
  • Usage of Gwadar Port
  • Supply of Russian arms to China and Pakistan

India-U.S-Japan alliance can be attributed to

• LSA agreement between India and U.S
• Quad for Maritime Security
• Naval Cooperation- Malabar Exercise
• Non-Nato status of defence partnership for India

Russia’s growing indifference with India is also the result of India’s defence diversification as it seeks to engage in defence cooperation with several countries including the United States to reduce its dependence on Russia. The fact that Russian supplied aircraft carriers (INS Vikramaditya) is India’s primary one and the naval cooperation between India and U.S. raises concerns for Russia as U.S now has direct access through LSA.

India has transitioned from its hitherto non-aligned policy from times of Cold War to that of multi-alignment. India and Japan share common interests of evolving a multilateral security architecture of South Asia while China desires a unilateral one. India’s multi-alignment policy with increased engagements with U.S in multi-dimensional areas including defence and strategic raises concerns for Russia.

India’s own defence diversification and engagement with U.S has forced Russia to look for alternate markets for its defence equipment and increased engagement with other regional powers in China and Pakistan. Russia realizes the importance of both these countries due to their importance in regional security and ensuring economic integration of Asia and connectivity to West.

Connectivity Projects and Various Dimensions

• Economic: Improved connectivity can boost trade and people to people exchange between countries characterised by increased movement of freight and people. This enables access to larger markets, incentivizes investment, provides more choices for consumers and also induces competition for products at a global level.
• INSTC was launched with the main objective of gaining connectivity to hitherto unconnected Central and West Asian regions for greater market access for domestic goods and import of foreign goods
• Strategic Dimensions: An underlying strategic dimension oversees all connectivity projects based on the route of the projects and the geo-political dimensions involved.
• India’s maritime connectivity projects like Project Mausam seek to evolve a multi-security architecture in Indian ocean region and counter China’s assertive influence through its own connectivity project in these regions.
• Soft Power: Connectivity projects to underdeveloped regions targeting infrastructure development, institutional building and capacity development of human resources are a way of enhancing India’s soft power and enhancing its global image.
• The Asia-Africa Growth Corridor enables India to carry out human development and infrastructure development programmes enabling friendly and cooperative relations with African countries
• Geo-Political Dimensions: Connectivity projects are often an instrument to re-orient strained geo-political relations or to consolidate cordial geo-political dynamics.
• India’s INSTC which aims to revitalise new areas of cooperation with old friends such as Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and ASEAN states an example of the formers.
• The AAGC and INSTC also evidences for strategic convergence with Japan and U.S in lieu of shared targets in Africa and India’s recognised role in instilling stability in Afghanistan (South Asia Policy of U.S) and Indian Ocean Region (Pivot to Asia)

India- Australia Bilateral Relations

• Defence: Naval Exercise – AUSINDEX, Vital for security in the Indo-Pacific region. India and Australia have called for a free and open Asia-Pacific through the 2+2 dialogue mode which includes foreign and defence secretaries of both countries
• Significant presence of Indian Diaspora in Australia contributing to several fields including science, technology, IT
• India and Australia share a fruitful trade relationship with each other with a joint aim to liberalise their economies and subsequently galvanise production and investment
• India and Australia are founding members of AIIB and along with Japan contribute substantially to infrastructure building in Asian region, a key focus of which is connectivity. Improved connectivity means that business sectors have better opportunities of foreign investment which would achieve an improved production through competition.
• India’s reforms of GST, relaxation in FDI is seen as supporting pillars for infusing foreign investment into India
• Australia is key to India’s multilateral diplomacy – UNSC

International Agencies and Agreements

UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons

• UN Treaty on a comprehensive ban of nuclear weapons was signed by 122 countries
• The treaty prohibits production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons taking into account the scale of possible destruction and the impossibility to shape a humanitarian response to the same
• A key step towards universal nuclear disarmament rather than a few countries who possess the technology using it as deterrent
• With the ban on nuclear weapons, a comprehensive ban on all weapons of mass destruction are now in place including biological and chemical weapon

WTO

Trade Facilitation in Services (TFS)

• India has called for a global pact on TFS for tapping full potential of service sector to boost world economy.
• Free movement of skilled workers across borders
• To boost global services trade growth
• India trying to push for TFS before WTO ministerial conference in Argentina

Wassenar Arrangement – Export controls for Conventional Arms and Dual Use Technologies

                The Wassegnar arrangement aims to increase regional and international security by promoting transparency and greater responsibility. in transfer of conventional arms and dual use goods and technologies

• Multilateral export control regime signed by 41 participant countries including many former COMECON countries
• India has been added as the 42^nd member of the group : Enhances India’s international image of non-proliferation despite not being signatory to NPT thus boosting its chances of securing membership to NSG (China is not a member of Wassegnar)
• India approved SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies) mandatory under Wassegnar
• Promotes greater transparency in transfer of conventional arms and dual use goods to ensure international and regional security. Aims to ensure military capabilities of countries are not enhanced and that these arms do not fall into hands of terrorist organizations

INDIA – West Asia

Why West Asia for India?

Energy Security: India’s requirement for oil is dependent on the Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Thus India’s relationship with GCC is critical to India’s energy security given the global energy crisis.

Untapped Markets: Hitherto unconnected to West and Central Asia, India now aims to achieve economic integration with West Asian region through its Look West Policy

Counter-Terrorism: India has stepped up engagements with Israel, UAE and Saudi Arabia by signing several MoUs on counter-terrorism to put an end to the export of fundamentalism from West Asia

Diaspora: India has shifted from a policy of benign neglect of its diaspora to leveraging it as a strategic asset especially in West Asia where they are most significant in their presence. India can thus leverage its own Muslim population to further cordial relations with the Gulf Countries

Maritime Security: With the shifting of the piracy line and threats from non-state actors rising, India needs joint maritime cooperation with West Asia to ensure maritime security. The joint naval exercises in the Gulf Region with the UAE are evidences of the same

Defence: India’s defence procurement diversification has spilled over to West Asia with Israel especially becoming a key supplier of defence equipment- drones, UAVs

Technology Adoption: West Asian countries can play a significant role in technology transfer enabling India to tackle rising challenges like climate change, water scarcity and cyber security

Conclusion/ Introduction

                The changing global geo-political scenario has allowed India to de-hyphenate relations in West Asia and forge independent links with hitherto estranged nations reflective of India’s now pragmatic foreign policy that enables conducive engagement in pursuit of national interest.

India-France

                India and France share cordial relationship marked by strategic convergence and multi-dimensional cooperation.

Why France for India?

UNSC Member: France is a permanent member of the UNSC that heightens its importance in multilateral cooperation with India. This attains greater importance in the backdrop of a nascent Russia- Pak- China alliance

Nuclear Energy Cooperation: France was one of the first countries to agree to cooperate with India in civilian nuclear energy despite India not being a member of NPT. This has boosted India’s reputation of peaceful use of nuclear energy in the global domain

Defence Relationship: France has been pivotal to India’s defence diversification as evidenced by the procurement of Rafale jets and the French expertise in building of Scorpene class submarines like the INS Kalvari

Domain of Cooperation

• International Solar Alliance: The ISA was proposed jointly by India and France in a bid to achieve its INDCs and includes all countries in the tropical and sub-tropical regions posing the enormous potential for solar energy production
• Maritime Security: India and France have released a joint strategic vision for cooperation in the Indian ocean area with the aim to ensure a free Indo-Pacific countering maritime terrorism and piracy. This attains increased significance due to the presence of extra-regional actors and the shifting of the piracy line to the Indian ocean
• Counter-Terrorism: France has been supportive of India’s proposal to designate Masood Azhar as a global terrorist in counter-terror committee of the UNSC
• Defence Hardware: India is procuring Rafale fighter jets from France and using its expertise in submarine building. A fresh logistics agreement has been signed between the countries to closely cooperate on mutually agreed terms
• Nuclear Energy
• Space Cooperation

Concerns in the Relation

China-France Relationship: France has provided support to China’s BRI that India strongly opposes on sovereignty grounds. This may play a spoiler in Indo-French relations

Conclusion

                India’s increased multidimensional engagements with France particularly in the strategic domain is indicative of its desire of diversifying its engagement not limiting itself to traditional allies of U.S and Russia.

Strategic Convergence

                France has committed to contribution for Indo-Pacific peace and security in the wake of quadrilateral alliance between India-Japan-U.S.-Aus. It has hence explained its willingness to form a defence and security partnership in the Indo-Pacific.

Presence in IOR – Naval bases in UAE, Djibouti and Reunion Islands

                Joint Naval Exercise – Varuna

Glorified Conclusions

On Cooperation: The Thai Cave rescue mission is illustrative of what cooperation can achieve and how the spirit of Universalism thrives through it. British diving experts, Para-rescue team from the US, Indo-Pacific Command, military personnel from Australia and specialists from Japan, Israel and China all came together in the spirit of humanity to make the miraculous rescue.