The aims of foreign policy of India

 

 

 

 

What are the aims of foreign policy of India, particularly in the light of strategic interests of India?

How is foreign policy carried out in India?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Country Studies Department

Sedchenko Anastasia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyiv 2012

The principles of India's foreign policy have stood the test of time: a belief in friendly relations with all countries of the world, the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means, the sovereign equality of all states, independence of thought and action as manifested in the principles of Non-alignment, and equity in the conduct of international relations.

In particular, the improvement of relations with its neighbors has always been one of the pillars of India's foreign policy. The Indian government has taken recent initiatives to further strengthen ties with its neighbors, which have won international appreciation.

An important achievement of India's foreign policy has been the strengthening of regional co-operation. India is an active member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which was launched in December 1985.

India's foreign policy has always regarded the concept of neighborhood as one of widening concentric circles, around a central axis of historical and cultural commonalties. From this point of view, it has always given due priority to the development of relations with South East Asia.

An attribute of a dynamic foreign policy is the ability to respond to changing developments. The emergence of the Central Asian Republics in the aftermath of the breaking up of the Soviet Union was one such recent development, and India, given the strategic and economic importance of this region, has been quick to strengthen its bilateral relations with each of these Republics. The shift in recent years by the countries of Central and East Europe to political pluralism and market-oriented structures has also seen India trying to build upon existing business and institutional linkages so as to further strengthen the traditional ties of friendship with the countries of this region.

With China the aim of Indian foreign policy has been of developing a relationship of friendship, cooperation and good neighborliness, exploiting the potential for favorable growth wherever it exists, even as we seek to find a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the outstanding border issue. Towards this aim, a series of high level visits have been exchanged, bilateral trade and economic cooperation is growing, and an Agreement on Confidence Building Measures, as part of a wider dialogue on security, has been signed.

India’s foreign policy is driven by five principal considerations, through which lie its relationships with the United States and China.

1. Conventional Security

As is necessary for any nation, India’s principal priority is ensuring conventional security for its country and its people. In recent years, India has built up a strong and capable Army, Navy and Air Force: the third, fourth and seventh largest in the world respectively.

2. Economic Growth

India’s second principal foreign policy goal is economic growth. 

Historically, India’s growth has been internally driven, stemming largely from its past socialist ideology. Increasingly, however, India is attracting foreign investment and drawing on international resources and markets to support this growth.

3. Energy Security

In order to sustain economic growth at around 10%, India must ensure energy security, its third major area of focus.

It has some of the largest resources of coal worldwide, but it is dirty coal and its use will have severe environmental implications.  India holds a similar position on energy consumption as many other developing countries; it should be permitted to expand energy consumption until its per capita levels are similar to those of the West.

4. Nuclear Capability and Nonproliferation

India has two nuclear weapons powers on its borders – China and Pakistan – and one would be nuclear weapons power in its immediate locale – Iran. Its relations with these first two powers are unstable; India has fought wars with both in recent decades and tensions rise and fall over border disagreements. In this context, India continues to attend to its own nuclear resources, and is very sensitive to intimation of control by any other power.

5. Prestige Security

The final priority of New Delhi’s government is for India to take its “rightful” place on the global stage.

India has the second largest population in the world. Unlike America’s, India’s soft power has remained strong, and their military, economic and diplomatic reach is increasingly significant. India is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy accommodating a Hindu majority with, as stated earlier, the third largest Muslim population in the world. They are very eager to take up the role on the global stage that these characteristics support. While already a leader of the developing world, India wants its status recognized in the developed world.

The basic principles of the Indian foreign policy are as follows:

1. Non-alignment movement - means not aligning with any of the two power blocs (the USA and the USSR) during the era of cold war.

 

 2) Panchsheel Treaty - the second most important principle of the Indian foreign policy which was signed on April 29, 1954 between India and China. The main aims of Panchsheel were:  
1. Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty

2. Mutual non-aggression

3. Mutual non-interference in domestic affairs

4. Equality and mutual benefit

5. Peaceful co-existence

It lives up to the potential that India's character and natural assets imply, it could become a powerful force for transformation.