India’s tracking down of Global reach out

By  Rana Danish Nisar 

Since its inception, India’s leadership has mastered reshaping its foreign policy objectives according to the changing dynamics of politics and interacting with major powers by following its national interests.

The alteration of power politics has always been instrumental in shaping, defining and implementing India’s foreign policy. Interestingly, the truth is that India really wants to see itself as an important key player not only in international power politics, but also in regional politics since its independence. Following the notion of keeping India alive in international politics, the Modi administration is following its forefathers, Nehru and Indira, and is running Indian foreign policy over two themes whose outcome is “first to increase the dominance of its influence not only over its neighbors but over the region and secondly to increase national security.”

Since his first term in office, Modi has shown his active interest in global politics and his numerous visits abroad are a result of India’s approach to the world. The constituencies of SEA and SA are Modi’s primary focus and cooperative diplomacy charts the course of India’s actions under the BJP’s leadership.  Along with India’s cooperative diplomacy and active involvement in global affairs, there are unfortunate and unresolved border disputes with its most important neighbors, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Pakistan. On the one hand, the current Indian leadership is taking a bird’s eye view of the growth of the PRC and Pakistan relationship and on another hand India makes itself busy in anti-Pakistan activities

With the aim of increasing India’s role in global politics, not only Modi’s government but also previous leaders have taken serious steps to engage India in international affairs and engage fully with the United States and its allies.

Due to changing geopolitical realities, liberalization in the economic environment and globalization, the threshold of the 21st century is witnessing a new alteration in India’s foreign relations from “NAM” to “Engagement”. In particular, the end of the Cold War forced the Indian leadership to improve the format of its foreign policy. The rise of the People’s Republic of China further strengthened the relationship between India and the United States. Not only for the reasons mentioned above, but for national interests and their all-out evaluation, soon after India’s second nuclear test in the late 1990s, the Indian premier reshaped its strategic relations and built new versions of relationships with powerful states such as the U.S., Russia, the government of Iran, France, and Germany. Currently, India is strengthening its deep global juxtaposition according to its national interests.

The following table can show the Indian global reach.

     Source: Compiled by Researcher

India further strengthened its strategic engagement and also turned its gaze towards Asian nations including the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia and Australia with special focus on ASEAN members and Asia-Pacific countries along with Central Asian states and KSA, Latin American state Brazil, Nigeria and Vietnam as its strategic partners. Like the previous two Indian premiers, Modi follows the same notion of strategic engagement and builds more strategic relationships with Canada, UAE, UK, Islamic State Oman and Mongolia. In the context of promulgating nuclear cooperation, India has signed multiple agreements with some 14 nations along with 4 enduring members of the UN Security Council, but at a distance from the PRC.

The agreements signed with fourteen states and especially UNSC members give unfathomable strength to Modi’s regime that aims to improve the state’s nuclear capabilities. In order to keep India out of the orbit of the NPT regime and rules, Modi, as prime minister, enhances Indian cooperative ties with various countries in order to gain positive support and leverage from them in any unpredictable matter. The main line of Modi’s approach towards the international community is engagement and meaningful interactions with them. Thirsting for hegemonic power especially in wider Asia, Modi regime raises more defense trade with countries.

The “military industrial complex (MIC)” states are considered India’s largest arms exporter. According to the analysis of international arms trade, India becomes the largest arms importer in the world and shares almost thirteen percent of the international rams trade under Modi. In SIPRI’s report, India becomes the third largest spender on its defense. In addition, SIPRI stated that India has territorial rifts with its neighboring countries, such as Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China, and most likely could turn into direct confrontations. The recent border clash between the PRC and India bears witness to this. Moreover, SIPRI in 2018 included India in the list of countries that spend the most on defense, with a value of US$63 billion, after America, PRC, KSA and Russia, and according to the 2020 report, India is the third largest defense spender.

In fact, Modi is totally avoided to share its military strength along with the expenditures that is used by India for defense and use ambiguities regarding this matter which is why the United Nations estimate the defense expenditures of nations through this report. in its another report, SIPRI publicize that Israel, Russia and American states are the largest exporters of arms to India and about 49% of India’s ammunition is importing from Israel. In addition, Israel’s “MIC” and “Tel Aviv” are engaging with India to promote Indian munitions including defense systems, intelligence radar, artillery-related missiles, nautical munitions, and aircraft. Leading Israel-oriented companies under the umbrella of “Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)” are providing “RAFAEL” and progressive defense systems aimed at upgrading India’s armed forces and enhancing India’s military modernization slogan. Reciprocally, Indian companies named “Tata Power strategic engineering Division (TaTa SED), “Indian Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL)” and “Larsen & Tourbo (L&T) have increased mutual trust with their counterparts in Israel.

Recently, the “Phalcon Airborne Warning & Control Systems (AWACS) was concluded by IAI which is considered as “eyes in the wider sky” and probably the promotion of IAF skies domain. Indian thirst to get a powerful country is the main manifesto of Modi’s regime and according to Modi’s thoughts India should have a powerful defense and army to acquire Indian strategic dominance in the wider region of Asia. Moreover, not only in the context of military modernization, Modi wants Indian dominance on the economic front and promote its regional hegemony in regional organizations. In addition to this deep juxtaposition with Israel, Putin from Russia has agreed to build deep strategic relations with Modi. After raising the range, the defense system named “S-300” was transformed into “S-400 and exceeded its range to 380 km, which is considered the latest agreement between Putin and Modi. In the context of nuclear forces, according to SIPRI, India’s nuclear forces have grown unprecedent.

Modi approved the Russian-oriented combat aircraft in the number of thirty-three and decided to upgrade 59 aircraft to build a more authentically powerful air force. This approval has twenty-one “Mig-29” and twelve “SU-30” aircraft with the approximate value of 181 billion Indian rupees which is equal to 2.43 billion US dollars.

Because of the lust for expansion of defense power, distant geography is never a big issue for India. The growing strategic relationship of the Indian and French governments is a living example of this. The relationship gained more heights in mutual trust after Modi signed “Medium Multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA)” just after his first two years as Indian premier. France’s “Dassault Aviation” has shown its willingness to invest about fifty percent which is about seven point eight billion euros earmarked to produce the aircraft components with the juxtaposition of Indian billionaire A. Ambanai who is Modi’s best friend.

The technology transfer of French aircraft which is designed by the French government to be used for nuclear wallop based missions seriously worrying for the regional stability of SA region. According to authentic military resources, all the tests regarding “Rafale” fighter aircraft; refueling, targeting and having nuclear warheads give exceptional weight to the capabilities of the IAF.

In addition to knowing the situation in the SA region, France as a permanent member of the UN is really avoiding the consequences of this agreement of “Rafale” aircraft having the capability to put nuclear warheads, not only threat to the peace of SA but extension of India’s “Made of India” slogan. Modi’s “Made of India” slogan and the French government’s agreement with Ambani’s company called “Reliance Defense” along with India’s possible export of “Rafale” technology to other nations may affect the security of the French government in the near future. The limitation of strategic engagement does not end with the “Rafale aircraft”, but the maritime sector is also the next domain of their mutual juxtaposition of trust. The French naval ship group is showing its willingness to build 6 ships “Scorpene -Class, Kalvri Class (SSKs)” to orient the most powerful Indian Navy.

Also, in the year 2018, almost fourteen (14) agreements were signed between two governments to improve mutual work in IOR. In the past year 2019, under the permission of the French government, the French Navy destroyers in the context of “anti-aircraft” which is considered by the strategic specialties as a true implementation of the strategic partnership. For many years, the Indian government has been spending more and more on its defense expenditures and importing more and more ammunition from the rest of the world.

The import, export of ammunition and spending more money on its defense sector also directly or indirectly associated with the country’s GDP and according to the “World development Indictors database, World Bank”, India is at the third number with the value of USD$9,611,679 million in the context of GDP as PPP. The following image is the testimony of the above mentioned World Bank statement, updated on July 1, 2020.

As mentioned above, now, India has become the second largest importer of ammunition according to SIPRI’s latest database from the years 2015 to 2019, and Forbes has listed India at number one on the list of largest arms buying countries from the years 1950 to 2017.

Indian imports of ammunition from the French government have increased by about 715%, making France the third largest supplier of ammunition to India after Russia and Israel. The “Rafale” deal with India and the nuclear aircraft also raises the question mark over French recognition of the NPT rule and other technology export control regimes.

In fact, along with the “Rafale”, as mentioned above, the French company DCNS is showing its willingness to build six “Scorpene-Class-Diesel-Electric Submarines (SCDESM)” and another six are headed under the P75I design. The very recent vivid example of the use of submarines is that in 2019 during the India-Pakistan crisis, the Indian Navy used “Kalvari-class submarines” against Pakistan’s territorial border in the Arabian Sea, which was countered by the Pakistani Navy.

Geopolitical qualms and a desire for hegemony cause Modi to shift his FP from the Russia bloc to the U.S. and join the U.S.-oriented course of anti-Russia and anti-PRC actions. The struggle for regional power hegemony has led Modi to showcase India’s active aspect in the politics of the great powers and the evolution of the unfathomable strategic nexus with the US exemplifies this. With the aim of fostering more confident strategic relations and motivating India against U.S. bluster, Trump recently gave STA-1 status to India and made it a third country in Asia after South Korea and Japan.

On the global front, India ranks 37th among STA-1 buyer states, and the U.S. has stated that India is an “aspirational” state for reliable defense trade. In fact, STA-1 status will give the force access to U.S. munitions H-L (High-Level) technology with low licensing requirements and this status is usually granted by the U.S. only to NATO countries. Later, Trump announced that India under the Modi regime would incredibly become the defense partner of the United States.

In the context of acquiring capabilities to curb strategic challenges, the Modi government has developed its strong strategic and diplomatic ties, especially with industrial and technologically advanced countries. To achieve the powerful pose in regional politics, Modi’s agenda is to promote arms buildup and expansion of India strategically using the “neighborhood policy”.

According to strategic calculations along with the term of geopolitics, America’s manifesto for India is to promote as a counterbalancing power to any growing threat. The US is not pushing and supporting India in the regional department, but forcing its western allies to do all the support they can to India and the example is acquiring members of export control regimes, for example WA, AG, MTCR and also looking ahead in NSG membership. Seriously, in the pentagon’s calculation, India can be a competent player in the broader Asian politics, especially in the concerns of two decisive places, the IOR and the broader Indo-Pacific, and it wants copious Indian support to acquire its supreme interests.

Frankly speaking, it is really observed that the growing strategic partnership and incredible efforts of the United States to support India are meant to keep the balance of the Asian department in the lap of the United States, but on the other hand in the game of this and strategic support of India is completely disturbing the BOP of the South Asian region where two traditional arch-rival “nuclear haves” are located.

Author: Rana Danish Nisar  –  PhD (International Relations) Student at the School of Politics and International Studies (SPIS). He holds Mphil in (International Relations), Masters in (Pakistan Studies), and Masters in (International Relations) degrees. He won acceptance Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations HPAIR (USA), 2017.  His research interests are broadly in South Asian Affairs, South Asia Geo-Politics, India-Pakistan Relations, South Asian Nuclear Politics, US and South Asia, Indian Ocean, Security studies, South Asian developments studies.

(The views expressed in this article belong  only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights). 

References

Muhammad Shakir Baacha, “India Defense Cooperation: A South Asian Puzzle,” Modern Diplomacy, June 11, 2020, https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/06/11/india-defense-cooperation-a-south-asian-puzzle/amp/ (accessed on June 6, 2021).  

Anaya Shahid, “the Perils of Indo-French Defense Cooperation,” Modern Diplomacy, July 24, 2020, https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/07/24/the-perils-of-indo-french-defense-cooperation/amp/ (accessed on June 6, 2021).

Related Posts

The “Modi-Mantra” in India’s Foreign Policy

Change of Emphasis in India’s Neighbourhood Policy

Neighbourhood Policy of India: Perceptional Changes

Kautilya’s Arthashastra and India’s strategic culture nexus