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Subject: Bilateral Relations

1. Major World Events
2. India’s Interests in neighbourhood
3. Effects of our Policies

  • Explained: India’s Afghan investment

    As the Taliban push ahead with military offensives across Afghanistan, preparing to take over after the exit of US and NATO forces, India faces a situation in which it may lose all its stakes.

    India-Afghan ties

    • After a break between 1996 and 2001, when India joined the world in shunning the previous Taliban regime (only Pakistan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia kept ties).
    • One-way New Delhi re-established ties with the country in the two decades after the 9/11 attacks was to pour in development assistance, under the protective umbrella of the US presence.
    • India built vital roads, dams, electricity transmission lines and substations, schools and hospitals, etc. India’s development assistance is now estimated to be worth well over $3 billion.
    • And unlike in other countries where India’s infrastructure projects have barely got off the ground or are mired in the host nation’s politics, it has delivered in Afghanistan.

    A soft corner

    • Afghanistan is vital to India’s strategic interests in the region.
    • It is also perhaps the only SAARC nation whose people have much affection for India.
    • Taliban takeover would mean a reversal of nearly 20 years of rebuilding a relationship that goes back centuries.

    Projects across the country

    [1] SALMA DAM

    • Already, there has been fighting in the area where one of India’s high-visibility projects is located — the 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province.
    • The hydropower and irrigation project, completed against many odds and inaugurated in 2016, is known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.
    • In the past few weeks, the Taliban have mounted attacks in nearby places, killing several security personnel.
    • The Taliban claim the area around the dam is now under their control.

    [2] ZARANJ-DELARAM HIGHWAY

    • The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation. Zaranj is located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
    • With Pakistan denying India overland access for trade with Afghanistan, the highway is of strategic importance to New Delhi, as it provides an alternative route into landlocked Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar port.

    [3] AFGHAN PARLIAMENT

    • The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million.
    • It was opened in 2015; PM Modi inaugurated the building.
    • A block in the building is named after former PM AB Vajpayee.

    [4] STOR PALACE

    • In 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and PM Modi inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century.
    • It is famous for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country.

    [5] POWER INFRA

    • Other Indian projects in Afghanistan include the rebuilding of power infrastructure such as the 220kV DC transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province to the north of Kabul.
    • Indian contractors and workers also restored telecommunications infrastructure in many provinces.

    [6] HEALTH INFRA

    • India has reconstructed a children’s hospital it had helped build in Kabul in 1972 —named Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health in 1985 — that was in shambles after the war.
    • ‘Indian Medical Missions’ have held free consultation camps in several areas.
    • Thousands who lost their limbs after stepping on mines left over from the war have been fitted with the Jaipur Foot.
    • India has also built clinics in the border provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Kandahar, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nooristan, Paktia and Paktika.

    [7] TRANSPORTATION

    • According to the MEA, India gifted 400 buses and 200 mini-buses for urban transportation, 105 utility vehicles for municipalities, 285 military vehicles for the Afghan Army.
    • It also gave three Air India aircraft to Ariana, the Afghan national carrier, when it was restarting operations.

    [8] OTHER PROJECTS

    • India has contributed desks and benches for schools, and built solar panels in remote villages, and Sulabh toilet blocks in Kabul.
    • New Delhi has also played a role in building capacity, with vocational training institutes, scholarships to Afghan students, mentoring programmes in the civil service, and training for doctors and others.

    Various ongoing project

    • India had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents.
    • Last year, India pledged $1 million for another Aga Khan heritage project, the restoration of the Bala Hissar Fort south of Kabul, whose origins go back to the 6th century.
    • Bala Hissar went on to become a significant Mughal fort, parts of it were rebuilt by Jahangir, and it was used as a residence by Shah Jahan.

    Bilateral trade

    • Despite the denial of an overland route by Pakistan, the India-Afghanistan trade has grown with the establishment in 2017 of an air freight corridor.
    • In 2019-20, bilateral trade crossed $1.3 billion.
    • The balance of trade is heavily tilted — exports from India are worth approximately $900 million, while Afghanistan’s exports to India are about $500 million.
    • Afghan exports are mainly fresh and dried fruit.
    • Some of this comes overland through the Wagah border; Pakistan has permitted Afghan trade with India through its territory.
    • Indian exports to Afghanistan take place mainly through government-to-government contracts with Indian companies.
    • Exports include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers and related materials, cement, and sugar.
    • Trade through Chabahar started in 2017 but is restricted by the absence of connectivity from the port to the Afghan border.

  • Regional powers and the Afghanistan question

    Context

    A regional conclave of foreign ministers taking place in Dushanbe this week under the banner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should give us a sense of the unfolding regional dynamic on Afghanistan.

    SCO addressing challenges in Afghanistan

    • Geography, membership and capabilities make the SCO an important forum to address the post-American challenges in Afghanistan.
    • The SCO was launched 20 years ago by China and Russia to promote inner Asia stability. 
    • The current members of the SCO are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India.
    • The SCO has four observer states — Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Belarus.
    • The idea of a regional solution to Afghanistan has always had much political appeal.
    • But divergent regional strategic perspectives limit the prospects for a sustainable consensus on Afghanistan.

    Implications of the US exit for the region

    • The quiet satisfaction in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Rawalpindi at the US’s exit from Afghanistan, however, is tinged by worries about the long-term implications of Washington’s retreat
    • Regional players have to cope with the consequences of the US withdrawal and the resurgence of the Taliban.
    • Neither Moscow nor Beijing would want to see Afghanistan becoming the hub of international terror again under the Taliban.
    • For China, potential Taliban support to the Xinjiang separatist groups is a major concern.
    • Iran can’t ignore the Sunni extremism of the Taliban and its oppressive record in dealing with the Shia, and Persian-speaking minorities.
    • Pakistan worries about the danger of the conflict spilling over to the east of the Durand Line, and hostile groups gaining sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

    Three factors that drive India’s Afghan policy

    • The US exit means a new constraint on Delhi’s ability to operate inside Afghanistan.
    • There is also the danger that Afghanistan under the Taliban could also begin to nurture anti-India terror groups.
    • If India remains active but patient, many opportunities could open up in the new Afghan phase.
    • Three structural conditions will continue to shape India’s Afghan policy.
    • One is India’s lack of direct physical access to Afghanistan.
    • This underlines the importance of India having effective regional partners.
    • Second, it remains to be seen if Pakistan’s partnership with China and the extension of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor into Afghanistan can address Pakistan’s inability to construct a stable and legitimate order in Afghanistan.
    • Third, the contradiction between the interests of Afghanistan and Pakistan is an enduring one.
    • While many in Pakistan would like to turn Afghanistan into a protectorate, Afghans deeply value their independence.
    • All Afghan sovereigns, including the Taliban, will inevitably look for partners to balance Pakistan.

    Way forward for India

    • India must actively contribute to the SCO deliberations on Afghanistan, but must temper its hopes for a collective regional solution.
    • At the same time, Delhi should focus on intensifying its engagement with various Afghan groups, including the Taliban, and finding effective regional partners to secure its interests in a changing Afghanistan.

    Conclusion

    India should pursue the regional solution to Afghanistan challenge after the US exit while increasing the engagement with the various players in Afghanistan including the Taliban.

  • Strategic cooperation between India, Italy and Japan can ensure a free Indo-Pacific

    Context

    Recently, Mr. Draghi, Italy’s Prime Minister described Chinese competitive practices as “unfair” and invited the EU to be franker and more courageous in confronting Beijing on various issues. Against this backdrop, a trilateral partnership between India-Japan-Italy could play important role in the Indo-Pacific region.

    India’s growing centrality in Indo-Pacific strategic architecture

    • Countries that share similar values and face similar challenges are coming together to create purpose-oriented partnerships.
    • In the context of the Indo-Pacific, the challenges posed by China’s assertive initiatives clash with a region lacking multilateral organisations capable of solving problems effectively.
    • But as a new pushback against China takes shape and as Indian foreign policy becomes strategically clearer, there is new momentum to initiatives such as the Quad.

    India-Italy-Japan trilateral partnership

    • Recently, Italy has also begun to signal its intention to enter the Indo-Pacific geography.
    • It has done so by seeking to join India and Japan in a trilateral partnership.
    • Italy has become more vocal on the risks emanating from China’s strategic competitive initiatives.
    • On the Indian side, there is great interest in forging new partnerships with like-minded countries interested in preserving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
    • The responsibility of keeping the Indo-Pacific free and open, and working for the welfare of its inhabitants falls on like-minded countries within and beyond the region.

    Potential of trilateral partnership

    • Their compatible economic systems can contribute to the reorganisation of the global supply chains that is now being reviewed by many players as a natural result of the Chinese mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    •  At the security level, the well-defined India-Japan Indo-Pacific partnership can easily be complemented by Italy.
    • At the multilateral level, the three countries share the same values and the same rules-based world view.

    The way forward for trilateral cooperation

    • The Italian government must formulate a clear Indo-Pacific strategy that must indicate its objectives.
    • But Rome must go beyond that in defining and implementing, at the margins of the EU’s common initiatives, its own policy with respect to the Indo-Pacific.
    • The India, Italy and Japan trilateral initiative can be a forum to foster and consolidate a strategic relationship between these three countries, and specifically expand India-Italy bilateral relations.
    • A trilateral cooperation can be the right forum for India and Italy to learn more from each other’s practices and interests and consolidate a strategic dialogue that should include the economic, the security and the political dimensions.
    •  To consolidate the trilateral cooperation in this field, the three countries need to define a common economic and strategic agenda.

    Conclusion

    A clear political will is needed from all sides, and Italy, in particular, should recognise its interests in playing a larger role towards the maintenance of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Robust India-Italy strategic ties can be the first step towards the realisation of this goal.

  • EAM hands over relics of 17th century Georgian Queen St. Ketevan to Georgia

    After a long-standing request of Georgia, External Affairs Minister handed over the holy relics of 17th century Georgian Queen St. Ketevan nearly 16 years after they were found in Goa.

    Who was St. Ketevan?

    • Queen Ketevan was a 17th century Georgian Queen.
    • From Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, she was tortured and killed in 1624 in Shiraz during the rule of the Safavid dynasty.
    • Portuguese missionaries were said to have carried the relics to Goa in 1627.
    • In 2005, after years of research and study of medieval Portuguese records, the relics were found at the St. Augustine Church in Old Goa.

    Importance of Georgia for India

    • Georgia a strategically important country situated at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
    • Relations between Georgia and India date back to ancient times.
    • The Panchatantra influenced Georgian folk legends. During the medieval period, Georgian missionaries, travelers, and traders visited India.
    • Some Georgians served in the courts of Mughal emperors, and a few rose to the rank of governor.
    • India was among the first countries to officially recognize Georgia, doing so on 26 December 1991.
    • India is a net exporter to Georgia.
    • The main commodities exported by India to Georgia are cereals, nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery and equipment, aluminium and aluminium articles.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:

    Sea Bordering Country
    1. Adriatic Sea Albania
    2. Black Sea Croatia
    3. Caspian Sea Kazakhstan
    4. Mediterranean Sea Morocco
    5. Red Sea Syria

    Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched? (CSP 2019)

    (a) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 2 and 5 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

  • Crafting a unique partnership with Africa

    This op-ed analyses the future of India-Africa cooperation in agriculture amid the looming Chinese involvement in African countries.

    Agricultural significance of Africa

    • With 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, employing over 60% of the workforce, and accounting for almost 20% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, agriculture is critical to Africa’s economy.

    China factor behind

    • As this relationship enters the post-pandemic world, it is vital to prioritize and channel resources into augmenting partnerships in agriculture.
    • This is crucial given its unexplored potential, centrality to global food security, business prospects and to provide credible alternatives to the increasing involvement of Chinese stakeholders in the sector.

    Analyzing Chinese engagement

    Chinese corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs adopt has provided a layered perspective of the sociopolitical, economic and environmental impact of Chinese engagement.

    • Trade: China is among Africa’s largest trading partners.
    • Credit facility: It is also Africa’s single biggest creditor.
    • Infrastructure: Its corporations dominate the region’s infrastructure market and are now entering the agri-infra sector.
    • Strategic support: While access to Africa’s natural resources, its untapped markets and support for ‘One China Policy’ are primary drivers of Chinese engagement with the region, there are other factors at play.

    China is going strategic in the guise of agriculture

    • Increasingly critical to China’s global aspirations, its engagement in African agriculture is taking on a strategic quality.
    • Chinese-built industrial parks and economic zones in Africa are attracting low-cost, labour-intensive manufacturing units that are relocating from China.
    • Chinese engineers interviewed spoke of how their operations in Africa are important to accumulate global experience in management, risk and capital investments.
    • Not only are they willing to overlook short-term profits in order to build a ‘brand China’, but they want to dominate the market in the long term, which includes pushing Chinese standards in host countries.
    • Chinese tech companies are laying critical telecommunications infrastructure, venture capital funds are investing in African fintech firms, while other smaller enterprises are expanding across the region.

    Agricultural landscape

    • While many Chinese entities have been active in Africa’s agriculture for decades now, the nature, form and actors involved have undergone substantial change.
    • In Zambia, Chinese firms are introducing agri-tech to combat traditional challenges, such as using drone technology to control the fall armyworm infestation.
    • They have set up over Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers (ATDCS) in the continent where Chinese agronomists work on developing new crop varieties and increasing crop yields.
    • This ATDCs partner with local universities, conduct workshops and classes for officials and provide training and lease equipment to small holder farmers.
    • Chinese companies with no prior experience in agriculture are setting out to build futuristic ecological parks while others are purchasing large-scale commercial farms.

    Inducing their soft power

    • The exponential growth in the China-Africa economic ties and the emergence of Beijing as an alternative to traditional western powers have motivated change in perceptions across groups.
    • Governments and heads of state are recalibrating approaches, media houses are investing more resources for on-the-ground reporting.

    Dark Side of the Sino-Africa ties

    • Simultaneously, Africa-China relations are becoming complex with a growing, insular diaspora, lopsided trade, looming debt, competition with local businesses and a negative perception accompanied by greater political and socioeconomic interlinkages.
    • On occasion, there seems to be a gap between skills transferred in China and the ground realities in Africa.
    • In some cases, the technology taught in China is not available locally and in others, there is inability to implement lessons learnt due to the absence of supporting resources.
    • Larger commercial farms run by Mandarin-speaking managers and the presence of small-scale Chinese farmers in local markets aggravates socio-cultural stresses.

    India’s agricultural engagement

    • Diverse portfolios: India-Africa agricultural cooperation currently includes institutional and individual capacity-building initiatives, an extension of soft loans, supply of machinery, acquisition of farmlands and the presence of Indian entrepreneurs in the African agricultural ecosystem.
    • Land acquisition: Indian farmers have purchased over 6,00,000 hectares of land for commercial farming in Africa.
    • States cooperation: Sub-national actors are providing another model of cooperation in agriculture. Consider the case of the Kerala government trying to meet its requirement for cashew nuts with imports from countries in Africa.
    • Civil society: Similar ideas could encourage State governments and civil society organizations to identify opportunities and invest directly.
    • Agri-business: There is also promise in incentivizing Indian industries to tap into African agri-business value chains and connecting Indian technology firms and startups with partners in Africa.
    • Investment: In the past year, despite the pandemic, the sector witnessed a record increase in investments.

    Way forward

    • A thorough impact assessment needs to be conducted of the existing capacity-building initiatives in agriculture for India to stand in good stead.
    • This could include detailed surveys of participants who have returned to their home countries.
    • Country-specific and localized curriculum can be drawn up, making skill development demand-led.
    • In all senses, India has consistently chosen well to underline the development partnership to be in line with African priorities.
    • It is pertinent, therefore, that we collectively craft a unique modern partnership with Africa.

    Conclusion

    • While India’s Africa strategy exists independently, it is important to be cognizant of China’s increasing footprint in the region.
    • Beijing’s model, if successful here, could be heralded as a replica for the larger global south.
    • It is important to note, however, that prominent African voices have emphasized that their own agency is often overlooked in the global discourse on the subject.

  • India-Africa relations

    The article deals with India’s strategy to deepen the ties with African nations and suggest a critical review of the implementation of India’s strategy.

    Need for review of India’s foreign policy for Africa

    • Africa is considered a foreign policy priority by India.
    •  Even as the COVID-19 era began in March 2020, New Delhi took new initiatives to assist Africa through prompt despatch of medicines and later vaccines.
    • But now the policy implementation needs a critical review.

    Four factors that explain need for a review of policy implementation

    1) Declining trade

    • Declining trade: Bilateral trade valued at $55.9 billion in 2020-21, fell by $10.8 billion compared to 2019-20, and $15.5 billion compared to the peak year of 2014-15.
    • Decline in investment: India’s investments in Africa too saw a decrease from $3.2 billion in 2019-20 to $2.9 billion in 2020-21.
    • The composition of the India-Africa trade has not changed much over the two decades.
    • Mineral fuels and oils, (essentially crude oil) and pearls, precious or semi-precious stones are the top two imports accounting for over 77% of our imports from Africa.
    • India’s top five markets today are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and Togo.
    • The countries from which India imports the most are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Angola and Guinea.

    2) Covid impact

    • COVID-19 has brought misery to Africa.
    • As on June 24, 2021, Africa registered 5.2 million infections and 1,37,855 deaths.
    • A recent World Health Organization survey revealed that 41 African countries had fewer than 2,000 working ventilators among them.
    • Despite these shortcomings, Africa has not done so badly.
    •  Sadly though, with much of the world caught up in coping with the novel coronavirus pandemic’s ill effects, flows of assistance and investment to Africa have decreased.
    • While China has successfully used the pandemic to expand its footprint by increasing the outflow of its vaccines.
    • Unfortunately India’s ‘vax diplomacy’ has suffered a setback. 

    3) Global competition for influence

    • Africa experienced a sharpened international competition, known as ‘the third scramble’, in the first two decades of the 21st century.
    • A dozen nations from the Americas, Europe and Asia have striven to assist Africa in resolving the continent’s political and social challenge.
    • These nations, in turn, stand to benefit from Africa’s markets, minerals, hydrocarbons and oceanic resources, and thereby to expand their geopolitical influence.

    4) Geopolitical tensions in Asia

    • Geopolitical tensions in Asia and the imperative to consolidate its position in the Indo-Pacific region have compelled New Delhi to concentrate on its ties with the United Kingdom, the EU, and the Quad powers, particularly the U.S.
    • Consequently, the attention normally paid to Africa lost out.
    • This must now change.

    Way forward for India-Africa relation

    • For mutual benefit, Africa and India should remain optimally engaged.
    • The third India-Africa Forum Summit was held in 2015.
    • The fourth summit, pending since last year, should be held as soon as possible, even if in a virtual format.
    • Fresh financial resources for grants and concessional loans to Africa must be allocated, as previous allocations stand almost fully exhausted.
    • The promotion of economic relations demands a higher priority.
    • Industry representatives should be consulted about their grievances and challenges in the COVID-19 era.
    • To impart a 21st-century complexion to the partnership, developing and deepening collaborations in health, space and digital technologies is essential.
    • India should continue its role in peacekeeping in Africa, in lending support to African counter-terrorism operations, and contributing to African institutions through training and capacity-enhancing assistance.
    • To overcome the China challenge in Africa, increased cooperation between India and its international allies, rates priority.
    • The recent India-EU Summit has identified Africa as a region where a partnership-based approach will be followed.
    •  When the first in-person summit of the Quad powers is held in Washington, a robust partnership plan for Africa should be announced. 

    Conclusion

    India should review the policy implementation and make changes in line with the changing geopolitical realities.

  • Bhutan’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Programme

    Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme has been recently launched.

    TIWB Program

    • TIWB is a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
    • India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
    • It aims to aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
    • The focus of the programme will be in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.
    • This programme is another milestone in the continued cooperation between India and Bhutan and India’s continued and active support for South-South cooperation.

  • Why does China consistently beat India on soft power?

    The article compares India with China in terms of soft-power both countries exert based on the measures produced by Lowy Institute in Australia.

    What is soft power?

    • Joseph Nye, who gave us the notion of soft power, suggests that it consists of foreign policy, cultural and political influence.
    • Foreign policy influence comes from the legitimacy and morality of one’s dealings with other countries.
    • Cultural influence is based on others’ respect for one’s culture.
    • Political influence is how much others are inspired by one’s political values.
    • Soft power is difficult to measure.

    The Lowy Institute in Australia has produced various measures which correspond roughly to foreign policy influence, cultural influence and political influence.

    1) India’s foreign policy influence

    • In diplomatic influence, overall, India ranks sixth and China ranks first among 25 Asian powers.
    • On networks, India nearly matches China in the number of regional embassies it has but is considerably behind in the number of embassies worldwide (176 to 126).
    • Multilaterally, India matches China in terms of regional memberships, but, crucially, its contributions to the UN capital budget are completely dwarfed by Chinese contributions (11.7 per cent to 0.8 per cent of the total).
    • In surveys of foreign policy leadership, ambition, and effectiveness, China ranks first or fourth on four measures while India ranks between fourth and sixth in Asia.

    2) Cultural influence

    • Lowy’s overall measure of cultural influence ranks India in fourth place and China in second place in Asia.
    •  Cultural influence is then divided into three elements, of which “cultural projection” and “information flows” are the most important.
    • In cultural projection, India scores better on Google searches abroad of its newspapers and its television/radio broadcasts.
    • India also exports more of its “cultural services” defined as “services aimed at satisfying cultural interests or needs”.
    • China does better on several other indicators.
    • For instance, India has only nine brands in the list of the top 500 global brands whereas China lists 73.
    • On the number of UNESCO World Heritage sites, India has 37 while China has 53.
    • Respect for the Indian passport also lags.
    • Chinese citizens can travel visa-free to 74 countries while Indians can only do so to 60.
    • In terms of information flows, in 2016–17, India hosted a mere 24,000 Asian students in tertiary education institutions whereas China hosted 2,25,000.
    • On total tourist arrivals from all over the world, India received 17 million, while China received 63 million.

    3) Political influence

    • In 2017 the two were not ranked that far apart in political influence.
    • The governance effectiveness index shows India scoring in the top 43 per cent countries worldwide and ranked 12th and China scoring in the top 32 per cent and ranked 10th.
    • On “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism”, India ranked 21st, and China ranked 15th.

    Consider the question “What do you understand by the term soft-power? How would you assess India’s soft-power potential in terms of various parameters?”

    Conclusion

    Soft-power theorists suggest that the ability to persuade rests on the power of attraction. We in India may think we are more attractive than China. The numbers show otherwise.

  • Russia-China Relations and its effects on India-Russia Relations

    The article highlights Russia’s increasing inclinations towards China and its implications for India.

    Context

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently asserted that both the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, are “responsible” enough to solve issues between their countries, while underlining the need to debar any “extra-regional power” to interfere in the process.

    Implications for India-Russia ties

    • By this remark, Russia expects India to give up all efforts to reverse Beijing’s encroachment strategies.
    • The remarks can only be seen as reinforcing China’s claim that the Quadrilateral or Quad is aimed at containing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
    • Russia’s continued criticism of the Indo-Pacific and the Quad suggests the divergent perspectives of India and Russia on how to deal with China’s rise to global prominence.
    • While India needs Russia’s partnership for its defence needs, India cannot endorse the Russian perspective on the Indo-Pacific and the Quad
    • The Russian attitude toward China’s growing power and influence will be the touchstone of Russia’s relations with India.
    • Russia has rejected the Indo-Pacific construct in favour of the Asia-Pacific on the ground that the first is primarily an American initiative designed to contain both China and Russia.
    • With the rise of populist nationalism amidst the decline of globalisation, the resolution of the Sino-Indian boundary dispute appears a difficult task.

    Background of India’s balancing strategies

    • Following the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), India soon realised Russia was much weaker than the erstwhile USSR and incapable of helping India balance potential threats from Beijing. 
    • On the other hand, Russia began to cast Moscow as the leader of a supposed trilateral grouping of Russia-India-China against a U.S.-led unipolar world.
    • Russia became an early proponent of the ‘strategic triangle’ to bring together the three major powers.
    • India’s fear of the unipolar moment too made it easier for India to become part of this initiative.
    • But China’s dismissive attitude toward Indian capabilities, coupled with an emerging China-Pakistan nexus, prevented the success of this trilateral.
    • India, instead, invested its diplomatic energies in rapprochement with the United States.
    • Thus, India decided to get integrated in the economic order it once denounced.
    • Economic liberalisation also allowed India to buy sophisticated weapons from a wider global market that included suppliers such as Israel and France.
    • As the logic of intensive engagement with the West was effectively established, strategic partnership with the U.S. was a logical corollary.
    • India has been searching for other major powers to balance against China as it does not have the sufficient means for hard balancing.
    • India has deepened its ties with Japan and Australia in a way that is close to soft balancing. 
    •  among all of India’s balancing efforts, the stupendous growth in ties with the U.S. has been the greatest source of concern for China which views the India-U.S. rapprochement as containment.

    Way forward for India-Russia ties

    • While other powers such as France, Australia, Japan and Russia will have an impact on the emerging maritime structures of the Indo-Pacific region, it is the triangular dynamic between India, China and the U.S. that is going to be the most consequential.
    • Russia is yet to realise that it will gain immensely from the multilateralism that the Indo-Pacific seeks to promote.
    • Being China’s junior partner only undermines Moscow’s great-power ambitions.
    • Given Russia’s preoccupation with ‘status’ rivalry with the U.S., Russia’s view of India-China relations seems understandable.
    • But there is a danger in permitting it to harden into a permanent attitude as an increasingly pro-Beijing Russia might adopt more aggressive blocking of India’s policy agendas.
    • That is why India is particularly interested in a normalisation of relations between Washington and Moscow.
    • The normalisation of relations between the U.S. and Russia will help India steer ties among the great powers.

    India-China ties

    • Non-alignment, painful memories of colonial subjugation, opposition to great-power hegemony, and strong beliefs in sovereignty and strategic autonomy have been the key influencers in shaping India’s and China’s engagement with each other as well as the western world.
    •  But this has begun to change as Beijing is asserting its hegemony over Asia.
    • In such circumstances, multilateral forums such as the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have little practical value for Indian diplomacy.
    • Without China’s reciprocity, options before India are limited.
    • The response cannot be just symbolic or rhetorical. The absence of any material evidence of reciprocity is bound to doom an attempt at Sino-Indian rapprochement.

    Conclusion

    China is undoubtedly the most powerful actor in its neighbourhood but it cannot simply have its way in shaping Asia’s new geopolitics.

  • A new era of partnership in social innovations that can benefit all South Asians

    Pandemic know no borders. So, dealing with it has necessited global cooperation. The article introduce us to some of the cross-country collaborations in dealing with the pandemic, igniting the hope for new era social partnership to the advantage of South Asia.

    Regionally-coordinated strategy against pandemic

    • Containing Covid pandemic has necessitated global cooperation.
    • The deadly pandemic surge in 2021 makes a regionally coordinated, evidence-driven strategy critical.
    • It is necessary to construct multi-stakeholder regional coalitions to devise new solutions and frugal innovations that can be applied across South Asia.
    • Given our shared and mostly similar social, economic and cultural contexts, local successes must be amplified across South Asia.
    • Despite wide variation in how nations have responded to the pandemic, the most successful strategies find commonality in their adherence to science and attention to local context.

    How successful interventions could be applied across the subcontinent

    • Beliefs, priorities, traditions and aversions to behavioural change are more similar across South Asia.
    • This means that interventions that are successful in changing behaviour in one place are highly likely applicable in other parts of the subcontinent.
    • For example, Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaigns to solve the problem of open defecation, developed by Bangladeshi NGOs in partnership with an Indian consultant is now broadly applied across South Asia and beyond.
    • The Grameen Bank microcredit model was an indigenous South Asian innovation that spread rapidly.
    • India’s digitised social protection ecosystem with Aadhaar ids and Jan Dhan accounts serves as a model for the region.

    Changing social norm around mask-wearing

    • The new pan-South Asian consortium in response to Covid-19 evolved out of an experiment conducted in Bangladesh around mask-wearing in rural communities termed as NORM.
    • It was observed that a combination of no-cost distribution, information, reinforcing the message, modeling and endorsement by community leaders (NORM) leads to large, sustained increases in mask usage.
    • NORM implementation teams based in Lahore, Ahmedabad, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Delhi are learning from each other’s successes and failures.
    • The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) quickly implemented the model to reach over one million members in Gujarat.
    •  Additional 1.5 million masks were shipped from Bangladesh to support SEWA’s outreach to other states.
    • Lahore’s commissioner worked with the research team to adapt the NORM model to an urban setting.
    • To manage mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 in rural India, where institutional health care access is limited a host of physicians, scientists and community-based organisations created the Swasth Community Science Alliance.
    • The Masking-Treatment-Vaccine Preparation (MTV) approach offers a sensible strategy to mitigate the pandemic until universal vaccination is achieved.

    Conclusion

    We need to come together to solve problems that affect us all. Let the lasting legacy of this pandemic be a new era of partnership in social innovations that can benefit all South Asians.