The contemporary and multifaceted dimensions of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ construct, under the overarching architecture of economic, security, and geopolitical considerations, challenge India’s strategic orientation.
India’s geo-strategic setting in the Indian Ocean Region, entrenched historical and cultural connections, shared maritime concerns, and rising economic and military might, make her an integral part of the Indo-Pacific equation.
Security dilemmas in traditional and non-traditional domains, safeguarding economic interests, wading through the escalatory trends in great power rivalry, preserving traditional relationships, and forging new partnerships are key determinants in India’s Indo-Pacific policy.
Amidst these intricacies, India needs to articulate her Indo-Pacific strategy through its principled and pragmatic foreign policy approach based on a shared vision and concerns.
The geographic confines of the Indo-Pacific in India’s Foreign Policy hypothesis extend from Africa’s Eastern Coast to the Western Seaboard of the Americas, accounting for more than half of the world’s population and around 60 per cent of global GDP. The Indo-Pacific caters for critical sea lanes of communication, which fuel the region’s economic growth, including that of India, besides housing vast reserves of marine and natural resources, oil and hydrocarbons, rare earth metals, and seabed minerals.
Though saltwater leanings persisted in Indian strategic thought for a long time, continental predicaments related to territorial disputes and four full-scale conflicts within two-and-a-half decades of independence precluded the realisation of India’s maritime vision.
India’s strategic outlook towards the region underwent a paradigm shift, propelled by the imperatives of globalisation, economic interdependence, and the contemporary geopolitical order.
Notwithstanding the originators of the Indo-Pacific concept, major players like the United States, Japan, Australia, and the European Union, amongst others, have strategised their Indo-Pacific policies to secure their national interests and remain relevant in the present-day global order.
The Indian vision, elucidated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while delivering the keynote address at the 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue, is premised on inclusiveness, openness, Asean centrality, and unity as fundamental postulates. India’s Indo-Pacific strategy is not directed against any country and recognises the right to access common spaces on the sea and in the air.
India supports unhindered trade, a common rules-based system, freedom of navigation, and peaceful resolution of conflicts in conformity with international law. An in-depth analysis of varied Indo-Pacific frameworks brings to the fore areas of congruence as well as divergence, posing attendant complexities to be negotiated as per the strategic compulsions of respective stakeholders.
The impact of Indo-Pacific iterations in India’s foreign policy calculus stems primarily from economic and security considerations. There is no denying the fact that the Indian Ocean Region emerges as India’s primary sphere of influence compared to the Pacific Ocean. The enactment of the ‘Act East’ policy, overcoming the shortcomings of the erstwhile ‘Look East’ policy, constructive multilateral engagements, and boosting economic and maritime capacity represent India’s renewed oceanic focus.
Belief in collaboration through existing institutional mechanisms like the Asean Regional Forum, East Asia Summit, Forum for India-Pacific Islands Countries, QUAD, and intense engagements with island nations in the Indian Ocean lie at the heart of India’s regional and extra-regional outreach.
Inventive projects like ‘Security and Growth for All in the Region’ and ‘Mausam’ outline Indian policymakers’ faith in collective growth and the rejuvenation of historical linkages.
Investing in port development through ‘Project Sagarmala’, multi-modal transport and industrial corridors (Kaladan Multi-modal Project and India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway), railways and coastal shipping modernisation, transnational highways, and inland waterways, facilitates economic integration.
Consistent impetus on Indian maritime capacity building has resulted in strengthening maritime domain awareness and maximising naval outreach, especially in the strategic backyard of the Indian Ocean Region. The Indian Navy’s mission-based deployments from the Gulf of Aden to the Malacca Straits, information sharing through the Information Fusion Centre and Information Management and Analysis Centre, brokering white shipping agreements, and energising a network of Coastal Radar Surveillance Systems, augment maritime capabilities.
Despite the strategic imperatives and economic prospects inherent in India’s Indo-Pacific strategy, several impediments persist in actualising Indian objectives. The diverse political, economic, and cultural Indo-Pacific characteristics, maritime security threats in traditional and non-traditional spheres, and great power rivalry challenge Indian interests in the Indo-Pacific.
Moreover, the evolving geopolitical landscape marked by the resurrection of nationalism, protectionism, and unilateralism within the Indo-Pacific further accentuates the complex Indo-Pacific framework. Importantly, the economic and military asymmetry in comparison to China and the vigorous pursuance of the ‘Chinese dream’ bring to the fore abundant security dilemmas in the region. Issues like regional instability in the Indian subcontinent, territorial disputes with China and Pakistan, the perceived China-Pakistan-Russia nexus, and protectionist economic inclinations mar India’s leadership status. Therefore, ensuring the acceptability of India as a regional leader, driving the Indo-Pacific dynamics, too, needs concerted efforts by Indian polity.
India’s future prospects for a preeminent position in the Indo-Pacific realm are contingent on consolidating its regional leadership role owing to its rising economy, influential military, responsible diplomacy, and evolving relations with key stakeholders. Addressing regional security inadequacies, uniting initiatives for collective growth through institutionalised mechanisms, and exploiting its dominant status in the ‘Global South’ architecture facilitates India’s Indo-Pacific ambitions.
Indo-China bilateral relations need to be progressed through a willingness to share strategic space with China, assuaging Chinese misgivings based on principles of trust and understanding mutual concerns, taking forward commonality in ideas related to climate change and globalisation, and sharing a table in forums like BRICS, SCO, and RIC. Thus, in order to take the lead in international fora, India should embrace a multipolar-Asia paradigm over a zero-sum alliance system, based on non-aligned values and practising strategic autonomy.
Unlike partnerships, alliances are woven in the intricate web of treaties and obligations curtailing freedom of action. India’s penchant for partnerships vis-à-vis alliances is enthused by her quest for pluralism, belief in existing institutional mechanisms, rule-based order in accordance with international law, and equitable trade amongst other aspects.
Initiating issue-based minilaterals like QUAD plus forums, nurturing privileged partnerships with Russia, and strengthening emerging relations with key players like the United States, Japan, and Australia should drive India’s engagement matrix in the Indo-Pacific.
India’s policy approach in the geo-economic dimension should concentrate on providing robust alternatives to regional players, fast-tracking connectivity projects, and initiating rational options to overcome trade and tariff barriers to form an inclusive regional economic regime. The need to diversify trade dependency is imperative as seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, and also eases economic de-coupling if necessitated.
The maritime capacity needs unalloyed focus, especially on cooperative arrangements enabling maritime domain awareness, marine research, and tackling seafaring non-traditional threats. Modernising the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, being the sword arms of so-called ‘maritime diplomacy’, needs to be supported with proportionate budget allocation to execute the nation’s maritime intent with greater emphasis on acquiring blue-water capabilities. Exploring bilateral agreements for basing Indian naval assets in the larger Indo-Pacific region will increase naval outreach and mitigate logistics challenges in sustaining far-off deployments.
Tri-services exercises, incorporating Indo-Pacific partners, on non-controversial subjects like disaster management, counter-terrorism, and peacekeeping, will propel jointness and interoperability. Promoting defence exports by extending a defence line of credit on soft terms is another way forward to create military dependency.
A nuanced policy approach, drawing inspiration from India’s traditional ‘Panchsheel’ dictum signifying ‘peaceful coexistence’ and ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ conceptualising ‘one earth-one family-one future’, to cooperate in areas of convergence and alleviate differences is the way forward to promote an enabling, stable, multipolar, and inclusive Indo-Pacific framework.
Brigadier General Amandeep Malhi is an international course member from India, attending the National Resilience Course at the National Centre for Defence Studies (PUSPAHANAS), Putrajaya.
