In matters of India’s geopolitical engagements, times certainly are changing. The question of how far, and how farther from the past, is a matter of time, strategy and situations. What, however, is clear by now is that the nation has taken a few decisive steps closer to the US — and as many steps away from China.
The signing by India and the US Tuesday of a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement is in keeping with India’s step-by-step strengthening of ties with the US in the last over a decade. The fact that this signing took place at the precise moment in which US secretary of State John Kerry is in New Delhi to take bilateral relations to new heights in various fields, is significant.
China, by its increasing acts of provocation, has only given the Indian establishment a handle to overhaul this nation’s foreign policy.
The substantial shift in India’s foreign policy has come about slowly but steadily. Significantly, at the very start of this initiative, it had no China factor woven into it. Specific reference is to the landmark civil nuclear cooperation deal that the Manmohan Singh government signed with the Americans in 2008, raising the hackles of many within this country.
The end of the Cold War era opened up new possibilities. The Russians, unlike the USSR days, were no more in a mood to engage nations like India. Nor did Russia have the resources to reach out far and wide. India’s economic push needed technological and scientific backing. Americans, some thought, were at hand and supposedly were extending a hand of friendship.
From 2008, there has been no looking back. But mutual suspicions take time to give way. Hence the cautious approach by India and the US in adding momentum to the friendship offensive. All the same, several strategic partnerships in trade and technology have come into being between the two nations in the past few years, ending a period of diplomatic drought.
This is topped now by the agreement signed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in Washington DC, which will increase military cooperation between the two countries mainly in terms of logistical support.
Facilities, for instance, will be provided to the US for refuelling of its military planes operating in the area, and the like; but US military will not be given a base in India. Not yet. While this is a step away from joint military operations, it is safe to reckon that the ground for such ties has been set.
So far, India’s constraints vis-a-vis engagement with the US in defence-related matters were mainly on possibilities like the need in future to send Indian military personnel to join the US on the war front; something that would come in the way of this country’s relations with the Middle East, and even with Russia and China — which all have their own strategic interests to protect.
Without doubt, Americans are a hard nut to crack. India will need to play its cards with utmost care. At the same time, too much of hesitation is tantamount to one’s weakness. Considering the new geopolitical realities wherein India is finding itself increasingly isolated, it would be foolish for this country to keep weighing the pros and cons and hesitate to act decisively forever.
Those who advocate closer ties with China as an alternative to building bridges with the US are either living in a fool’s paradise or are too clever by half. China is systematically working its way through a diabolical plot to take on India at multiple levels.
The way it is building naval bases encircling India on all the three sides, the manner in which it is cozying up to Pakistan and cocking a snook at India from there, and the way it is increasingly indulging in border incursions and browbeating India along the northern border — reaching up to Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh, and not just Ladakh in recent months — are matters of serious concern.
Large parts of India’s land mass are in the possession of the Chinese; lands they have annexed in war. With a weak military strength, India does not have the nerve to take on China and hence is keeping the matter pending; and at the same time unwittingly facilitating a fatal market invasion from the Chinese side.
True to form, the Chinese are the least dependable among nations; not just to India but to the others in the red nation’s periphery as well. They are not open; and they are scheming all the time. It is high time China’s bluff is called. China’s provocative actions provide all the justification for India to strengthen its ties with the Americans. That, by far, is the best way forward.
