Round The World

New Delhi, 19 April 2011

21^st C India’s Diplomatic Plate

DIVERSIFYING ENGAGEMENTS

By Monish Tourangbam

Research Scholar, School of International Studies (JNU)

Close on the heels of Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s visit to Japan, where an India-Japan-US dialogue was initiated, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travelled to Sonya in China to attend the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit. Post the Summit, he also made a bilateral visit to Kazakhstan, a relationship important for India’s energy quest. Now, this speaks volumes about the trajectory of Indian foreign policy-making and also the changing nature of global politics that necessitates such a course.

The international system is undergoing a phase of complex inter-dependence and despite major and emerging powers complaining and criticizing each other’s policies they have no choice but to talk to each other and work on the areas where they have complementariness of interests.

In an era that is witnessing a mushrooming of organizations and associations within and across regions, India’s growing stature in world politics would be measured to a great extent by the kind of presence it has in these groups and the importance that is given to New Delhi’s views in major organizations.

Moreover, India’s changing power status is to be seen from the changing dynamics of its relations with major world powers, who can no longer ignore a good relationship with New Delhi. As such, India’s relationship with the US, or its ties with China and Russia does not come at the expense of another, but every relationship is being seen at its own merit notwithstanding various issues of divergences, normal in any relationship covering various issue areas.

Indeed, the BRICS Summit was another reflection of the growing importance of emerging economies in world politics and a mirror to the shifting power bases in the international system. The meet that brought leaders from five major emerging world economies, expressed their vision of sustainable growth of BRICS countries, emphasizing on increased cooperation in economic, finance and trade matters, thus contributing to sustainable growth of the world economy. They also dwelt on the need for reform in international organizations to better reflect changing realities.

The Sanya declaration said, “We express our strong commitment to multilateral diplomacy with the UN playing the central role in dealing with global challenges and threats. In this respect, we reaffirm the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more effective, efficient and representative, so that it can deal with today’s global challenges more successfully.”

Under the theme “Broad Vision, Shared Prosperity”, deliberations were held and a broad consensus was reached on strengthening BRICS cooperation as well as on promoting coordination on international and regional issues of common interest. The BRICS leaders also propagated their support for the increasing relevance of the G20 Group and its premier role in global economic governance.

As the engines of growth in a world that is undergoing a fragile recovery from the global recession, emerging economies like India and China have dramatically increased their power shares in international politics and every effort should be made to transfer this economic convergence to other issues of political importance where New Delhi and Beijing do not see eye to eye.

Regardless of the economic commonalities and some areas of cooperation between the two Asian giants, there are too many issues to be managed whereby the two are typecast as arch-rivals in regional and international politics. This should be corrected if Asia is to sustain its dominance not only in size and population but also in other sources of power.

 For instance, Beijing would provide a major confidence building measure to New Delhi if it came out with a more categorical support for India’s bid for a permanent seat at the Security Council, rather than its repeated rehearsed line: “We understand and support India’s aspirations to play a bigger role at the UN.”  

But a welcome step was taken during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit. The two countries agreed to resume defence exchanges following a meeting between Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao, along the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. Especially as defence exchanges had been suspended last year when the Chinese Government refused to provide a visa to Northern Army Commander Lt Gen B S Jaswal on the grounds that his jurisdiction included Jammu and Kashmir State.

For some time, China has been issuing stapled visa to Indian citizens in J & K, a move that officials felt is tantamount to questioning Indian sovereignty over the State. According to bureaucrats Beijing has agreed to receive an officers' delegation from the Northern Command later this year, and will issue them regular visas.

However, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not reply to a question on whether China had indeed withdrawn the stapled visa policy or it was merely making an exception to allow exchanges to resume. As such, uncertainties still linger on core issues of national interest, which need to be worked out transparently if the convergences at some levels are to be replicated in others.

This apart, Prime Minister used the Summit sidelines to inter-act with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev vis-à-vis the need for a review of nuclear safety issues in the context of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant calamity along-with taking stock of developments in the larger India-Russia ties. Manmohan Singh also met South Africa President Jacob Zuma and decided to hold joint Naval exercises and fixed a new trade target of $15 billion to be achieved by next year.

The  major highlights of the Prime Minister’s Kazakhstan visit were the agreements signed for procuring energy from this Central Asian country. According to sources, three agreements were signed between the national companies of both countries.

The Satpayev exploration block located in the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea contains two prospective structures — Satpayev and Satpayev Vostochni (East) -with estimated hydro-carbon reserves of 256 million tonnes. The agreements will reportedly enable ONGC Videsh (OVL) to acquire 25 per cent equity from Kazmunaigas (KMG), define how OVL will pay KMG, repayment in case of commercial discovery and development of the discovered fields.

Importantly, in today’s world politics, no bilateral relationship is projected as coming at the expense of another, because a country has a plethora of interests that cannot be satisfied from its relationship with a few countries. For an emerging economy and an emerging power holder at the international stage, diversifying its sources of engagements with many countries across a wide spectrum of issues is needed, clearly, that’s where Indian foreign policy-making is directed.

Hence, against this backdrop Prime Minister Singh’s recent visits assume importance. As India looks towards a future where it is certain to play a more pivotal role than it has ever played before, New Delhi needs to increase the size and diversity of its diplomatic platter. The “Indian diplomatic platter” in the 21^st century should have something to entice everyone. ----- INFA

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