The article argues that success of India’s foreign policy has been contingent on three pillars such as Strategic Autonomy, Multialignment and Soft Power. India has frequently resorted to these cardinal principles to defend its national interests.
Strategic Autonomy
India has been able to defend its key strategic interests by maintaining strategic autonomy even amid the wars involving great power politics. India’s stance on cases like Russia-Ukraine war and Israeli-Hamas war substantiates this. It has not sided with the west and chose a course of neutrality in the war in Ukraine. It neither condemned nor did it blame Russia for the war. India’s abstention from all UN resolutions pertaining to Ukraine demanding a Russian withdrawal or condemning the war as well as relating to Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian territories since March 2022 exemplifies this.
India’s strategic interests in the Ukrainian case are multifaceted. First, India cannot afford to put its weight behind the Western move to isolate Russia that has palpably pushed Moscow even closer to China which is poised to undercut New Delhi’s interest. Second, a multipolar world order in which India sees its interests best-served can only be realized with preservation of Russia’s position as a great power.
Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary of India not only underlined the threat concerns that NATO’s eastward expansion posed for Russia, she justified India’s stance in an article in Foreign Affairs as well arguing “India did not respond to Washington’s past abuses with sanctions or acrimony. New Delhi instead continued doing business with the United States—even if it opposed the country’s invasions—because doing so helped India and made it easier for the world to address shared challenges. New Delhi has every right to take the same approach with Moscow, no matter what the West says”.
Despite diversification of defence imports and India’s ever growing strategic partnership with the US, the country still depends on Russia for “essential components of several advanced weapons systems including its fighter aircraft, cruise missiles, submarines, and land warfare platforms”. In a similar vein, as a victim of terrorism as well as keeping in view of the Israeli support in the critical areas of defence, India has supported the Israeli action against Hamas.
Multi-alignment
India understands that a country witnesses shifting of its friends and enemies with passage of time but its geography cannot be altered. Hence, it has sought to secure its vital security interests in the Indo-Pacific and Himalayan region by entering deeply into the strategic ambit of the US but not by throwing its full weight behind the containment of China strategy.
In this light, India has carefully crafted its Indo-Pacific policy and participation in QUAD so as to strengthen the maritime security and maintain a free and open region without explicitly endorsing a containment strategy aimed at China. It has been able to defend its national interest through a policy of multi-alignment. India is managing the Chinese threat with the US assistance by strengthening the QUAD without sacrificing the age-old strategic relationship with and military support from Russia.
On the other side, India’s security concerns about China have not prevented it from cooperating with China in its continued efforts to collectively working towards representing and addressing the development concerns of the Global South through multilateral forums such as BRICS and the SCO. India is not only one of the largest trading partners of China, it has been attending trilateral meetings with both China and Russia. It has left no stone unturned to strengthen the multilateral forum – BRICS including member-states — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — in order to represent the interests of the Global South. India has also been at the forefront demanding reforms of the global institutions such as UN Security Council and International Financial Institutions including World Bank and IMF keeping the changing power realities and notions of security which favor the global south in view.
India understands how its geostrategic location is vital to the American pivot to Asia. The US’s ‘Containment of China’ strategy through QUAD is largely contingent on India’s critical support. Its vital location has allowed it the breathing space amid the polarized stance of the West on the one hand and Russia on the other over the Ukrainian war.
From Russia, India could import natural resources such as oil with subsidized prices despite its neutrality in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and diplomatic pressure from the West on India to isolate Russia. India could secure a waiver from the US for importing S-400 missile from Russia. India is importing essential defense equipment as well as deftly maintaining its ties to Russia even while it has entered into a strategic partnership with the US to balance China.
With the US, India has successfully forged ties in the areas of critical defense technology, Artificial Intelligence, cyber technology and telecommunication whereas Russia has inched closer towards China and Pakistan during the post-Cold War era engendering concerns in New Delhi. In this light, India understands that it cannot afford to isolate Russia further.
Soft Power
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to project India as a Viswa-Guru by invoking India’s historical and spiritual resources as well as his emphasis on Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and practices of Yoga have gained traction. He has been able to influence leaders of many countries through his oratory skills and yogic lifestyle. India is also willing to play a greater role towards leading the Global South. This willingness of the country to lead Global South amid the dysfunctionality of Non-Alignment Movement (which had accorded India global recognition during the Cold War era) has restored some of its lost soft power resources which has been evidenced during India’s presidency in the G-20 and SCO groupings. Prime Minister Modi has innovated India’s foreign policy by infusing it with civilizational values as reflected in initiatives from Buddhist diplomacy to efforts to use Hindu sociocultural terms to promote solidarity among developing economies.
[Photo by Hari Mangayil, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons]
Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra is a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, SVM Autonomous College, Odisha, India. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
