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Relevance: This article explains India’s International Relations strategy
What happens to India’s ‘plurilateralism’ after Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
Source: The Indian Express
Context
In his recent book titled The Indian Way, the Indian Foreign Minister wrote: “It is time for us to engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play, draw neighbors in, extend the neighbourhood and expand traditional constituencies of support.” This plurilateralism is expected to bring numerous benefits to India.
What is plurilateralism?
Plurilateralism refers to the negotiations between three or more countries. In a plurilateral agreement or arrangement, the countries agree to new terms and conditions on a voluntary basis.
About the recent developments that facilitate the plurilateralism
- Recently, India revived the Quad arrangement.
- India also took membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
- India at present has a longstanding trilateral relation with Russia and China. This coexists with one involving the US and Japan. For instance,
- Indian PM visited the US and conducted a Howdy Modi gathering in 2019. In the same year, the Chinese President and Indian PM met in Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu.
- Similarly, recently India participated actively in the RIC (Russia-India-China) meeting and the Vladivostok Summit (India-Russia). With the same energy and enthusiasm, India also participated in the JAI (Japan-America-India) trilateral meeting.
- Further, India also maintains cordial relations with the nations even when they fight among themselves. For instance,
- Relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia,
- Relations with Israel and Palestine.
About India’s relations in South Asia
Regarding India’s region, the foreign minister reflected in the motto “Neighbourhood First” in the book. He recalled the priority of South Asia and presented India as the country that can “rebuild a fractured region”.
What is driving India’s plurilateralism strategy?
India’s willingness to look beyond dogma and enter the real world of convergences help India to evolve these relationships without any troubles. He provides an example of “calculus, not just as arithmetic.” to explain this.
The defence minister defined this strategy of India as “a parallel pursuit of multiple priorities”. He also mentions that some countries did not understand the Indian initiatives and relations with multiple countries. He explains this as a hallmark of the new “Indian way”.
About the recent developments in Afghanistan
Read the following articles to know about the developments in Afghanistan.
Christophe Jaffrelot seems that “plurilateralism” is not feasible anymore, as two blocks (East and West) are crystallising on the occasion of the Afghan crisis. He provides the following examples.
East bloc Supporting Taliban
- Russia is prepared to recognise the Taliban.
- China is willing to hold talks with the Taliban.
- Pakistan is helping the Taliban without necessarily controlling them
- India invested a considerable amount of resources in developing Chabahar port and connect Afghanistan from Iran. But Iran also said it was ready to deal with the Taliban.
- Further, Iran is also moving closer to China while distancing itself from India. This is witnessed ever since India adhered to the US Sanctions on Iran.
Contrary to the Eastern bloc, the western bloc opposes the Taliban. But, India geographically in the East aligned its ideology with the west regarding the Taliban. This creates challenges for India.
Other challenges to India’s plurilateralism
The developments in Afghanistan might create a new Cold War against the backdrop of “Belt and Road Initiative vs. Indo-Pacific”.
Furthermore, India also moving its attention towards the West from the East. This is visible from India’s move to back out from Regional Comprehensive Economic partnership (RCEP), setbacks in Act East policy, and conducting trade negotiations with the Western Countries.
| Read more: India pivot from Look east to trade West |
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