The last two months have been an eventful period in India’s foreign policy engagements. The culmination of three events — One Belt, One road (OBOR)/Belt and Road Forum (BRF), Shangri-La Dialogue and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet — saw high-level exchanges among countries of the Asia-Pacific region. However, India’s different responses to the three events point to complexities that might hinder its approach.
The first event, the BRF held in Beijing, was attended by 29 heads of states, more than 100 senior government officials and 70 international organisations. New Delhi, critical of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), chose not to attend. It thus sent a strong political signal of its discomfiture to the leaderships of both China and Pakistan.
When it comes to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, which brings together Defence Ministers and other high-level officials from 28 nations in the Asia-Pacific, India has attended 12 out of 16 meets since its inception in 2002. This year though, India was conspicuous by its absence, which was due to a combination of factors — late confirmation from New Delhi’s end and a ‘programme oversight’ by the organisers. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, also additionally holding the portfolio of defence, was hard-pressed for time and Minister of State Subhash Bhamre was deputed to head the Indian delegation. India decided to pull out when he was told to attend one of the ‘plenary sessions’ and not given a speaking role at the main session.
It missed out on an important avenue to put across its views due to the absence of a full-time Defence Minister. That said, New Delhi could have sent a suitable delegation instead as was done by China and Pakistan. Chinese delegation, led by Lt. Gen. Le Hei, raised several issues like U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, navigation in the South China Sea and Korean peninsula nuclear issue. On a related note, India is working on its own version of multilateral dialogue forums. The ‘Raisina Dialogue’ and ‘Gateway of India Dialogue’ have celebrated two successful editions. India may be keen not to give too much importance to other similar forums.
The third engagement was at the SCO, which India and Pakistan joined on June 9 after having remained observer states for several years. Speaking at the summit in Astana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his desire for enhanced connectivity and trade exchanges and also pledged his commitment in the collective fight against terrorism. The SCO will be India’s wedge to make inroads into Central Asia.
The Indian government has invested significant diplomatic capital in bilateral engagements. However, regional multilateral engagements are equally important, given the commonality of threats and the Indian leadership should actively participate in them. They also provide avenues for bilateral discussions on the sidelines. Until any platform disregards India’s ‘core interests’, New Delhi should consider attending similar high-level engagements in the future.
