India Needs To Rework on Neighborhood Policy

Context: Shifting trajectory of India’s neighborhood policy.

Background: Over the past few years, there have been many strains in ties with neighbors, for instance, with Nepal over its Constitution in 2015 and now over the newely launched map, and with Bangladesh over the Citizenship Amendment Act. But, the recent visits by the Foreign Secretary and the National Security Adviser of India to countries in the region appear to show energetic enthusiasm and new zeal in India’s neighborhood policy.

In Detail

India was seen as a natural rising power in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region. Infect, it was the de-facto leader of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). India has historical and cultural ties with Nepal. It enjoyed traditional goodwill and influence in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

India had made investments worth billions of dollars in Afghanistan and cultivated vibrant ties with the post-Taliban stakeholders in Kabul. It had committed itself to multilateralism and the Central Asian connectivity project, with Iran being its gateway. It was competing and cooperating with China at the same time, while the long border between the two countries remained largely peaceful.

But in the present time, India is facing violent clashes along the LAC, leading to fatalities for the first time in 45 years. SAARC is in cold storage. Nepal has turned hostile having adopted a new map and revived border disputes with India.

Sri Lanka has tilted towards China, which is undertaking massive infrastructure projects in the Indian Ocean island. Bangladesh is clearly miffed at the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The Afghanistan is undergoing a major transition, India is out of the multi-party talks. Iran has inaugurated a railway link project connecting the Chabahar port, on the Gulf of Oman, to Zahedan, which India was to have constructed, but now is going without India.

With focus attention, three problems can be found which are more or less linked to this decline, that are a closer alignment of policy with the U.S. line, coupling of foreign policy with domestic politics and hubris.

Exploring New Diplomatic Dimensions

The foreign policy should not be episodic or event oriented, but it should be process-oriented. A well focused prepration of plan for continuous engagement at various levels. Sometimes, domestic events also needs to address to balance the relations, in foreign policy, like the recent protest on CAA issue. But, priority needs to be set at policy making step and try to make balancing approach on domestic factors over foreign policy issues.

This is particularly important in terms of India's neighbourhood policy. India should fashion its diplomacy in a manner which does not give rise to feelings to small neighbouring countries of being slighted or marginalised.

If the main objective of India’s neighbourhood policy is to connect and have closer links with immediate neighbours, which has been stated by various Indian Prime Ministers over the last 20 years, then it would certainly come back on the right track.

In the present time India needs to be make clarity in its foreign policy approach. It is very easy to accuse any of India’s neighbouring countries of being too close to China. But it’s very difficult to set out the exact terms of what they should or shouldn’t do with China.

Sometimes, neighbors' relations with China, defining India's relations with them, need to change this outlook. As at the present time each nation wants to modernize in all areas, for which they need to broaden the basket of allies.

Naturally all these countries in India’s neighbourhood will try to balance. They will always be anxious about India, which is the de facto giant in this geography. The only way to really solve all this is to focus on creating interdependence in this region that will give India strategic leverage.

Competition With China

All countries in India’s neighbourhood that used to depend and rely much more on India in the past are adopting a first come, first served policy. They have an open door policy and they don’t care if it is Chinese ventilators or Indian ventilators that are reaching their capitals first.

Hence, the various connectivity initiatives that India has taken over the last few years in the neighbourhood, in terms of energy, interdependence, infrastructural connectivity, grants and loans, the numbers have been going up. And that is not just because India’s feeling more generous towards its neighbours, but, essentially because India is facing competition from China.

Conclusion

Specific reasons can be found for these setbacks. Also, foreign policy need not be static. There will be ups and downs depending on the changes in policy as well as the changes in global politics.

To address the current crises, India has to reconsider its foreign policy trajectory. It is a big power with one of the world’s biggest militaries. It is a natural naval force in the Indian Ocean.

But what makes the current downturn serious is that there is a relative decline in India’s smart power, especially in the neighborhood and the extended neighbourhood, which demands a deeper perusal of the foreign policy trajectory itself.

Connecting the Article

Question for Prelims : Which of the following country is not the member of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation ?

(a) Nepal
(b) Sri Lanka
(c) Bangladesh
(d) Afghanistan

Question for Mains : Diplomacy is not a simple game of being either tough or generous, it is a much more nuanced and complex exercise. In the light of this statement, Discuss the India's foreign policy with neighbors.