{"id":157973,"date":"2022-01-03T20:31:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T15:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=157973"},"modified":"2022-01-03T20:31:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T15:01:41","slug":"indias-foreign-policy-in-2021-from-selective-to-universal-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-foreign-policy-in-2021-from-selective-to-universal-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021: From selective to universal engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>: India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021 followed a style of openness and readiness to deal with friends and foes alike. From selective alignment, India moved to universal engagement, even to the extent of convening meetings with antagonists.<\/p>\n<h5>About India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021<\/h5>\n<p><strong>Relations with the US and its allies<\/strong>: India took active engagements with the U.S. and went beyond familiarisation with the new government to increased commitment to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/aukus-security-alliance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quad<\/a><\/strong> and acceptance of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/aukus-security-alliance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AUKUS<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/quadrilateral-economic-forum-and-india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">formation of the \u2018western Quad\u2019<\/a><\/strong>, with the U.S., Israel and the UAE.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/recent-developments-in-india-russia-relations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Relations with Russia<\/strong><\/a>: Major agreements were signed with Russia, despite the American threat of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/what-is-caatsa-or-countering-americas-adversaries-through-sanctions-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CAATSA<\/a><\/strong> against <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/s400-triumf-missile-system-purchase-issue-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">S-400 missiles<\/a> <\/strong>and the Russian inclination to align with China in the days to come.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relations with China<\/strong>: The relations with China met with limited success. China is confident that the growing hard power \u2014 economic and military \u2014 gives it the luxury to dispense with diplomatic niceties. Hence,<\/p>\n<p>1. China has not shown willingness to disengage in Ladakh and withdraw to the previous positions behind the Line of Actual Control, 2. Recently, changed the names of various places in Arunachal Pradesh, 3. Building villages on the unpopulated border with India, 4. Trying to create a wedge between India and its close Himalayan neighbours \u2014 Nepal and Bhutan, 5. Seeking to undermine Indian influence in the Maldives and Sri Lanka and, more broadly, in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/recent-developments-in-india-russia-relations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Taliban in Afghanistan<\/strong><\/a>: American notion of bringing in some civility to the Taliban in Kabul has failed. Now it is a high priority for India to face a Pakistan-China-Taliban axis with some support from Russia and Iran.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/coup-in-myanmar-and-india-myanmar-bilateral-relations-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Relations with Myanmar<\/strong><\/a>: In 2021, the Foreign Secretary visited Myanmar to engage the military junta at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders are in prison.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/glasgow-climate-pact-cop26-outcomes-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Climate Change<\/strong><\/a>: India decided to stand out of the line on the matter of <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/glasgow-climate-pact-cop26-outcomes-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>net-zero emission target<\/strong><\/a> years but succumbed to the pressure to commit more to promote renewable energy and phasing down coal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>United Nations<\/strong>: India took the presidency of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/un-security-council\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UN Security Council<\/a> in August 2021 and provided significant contributions. But, India showed less interest in the demand for United Nations reform in 2021.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other issues<\/strong>: India has been charged as &#8220;India only a part-democracy&#8221; received less Indian interest. As for Indian democracy, the Prime Minister\u2019s assertion that India is the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-indias-ancient-republics-need-to-be-recognised-for-their-place-in-world-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>mother of democracy<\/strong><\/a>\u201d went uncontested at the political level.<\/p>\n<h5>How to address the challenges in India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021?<\/h5>\n<p>The extraordinary efforts made by India have not been fruitful in <strong>Afghanistan and<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>China. <\/strong>\u00a0Among them, China remains the most important national security task for India in 2022 and beyond. To redress the power imbalance with China, India has to<\/p>\n<p>1. Along with diplomatic relations, India has to <strong>rush the military modernisation and strategic coordination with its Quad partners<\/strong>, 2. At the economic level, India will need to move rapidly to <strong>end its isolation in the global trade domain<\/strong>, 3. India has to <strong>stay out of a China-dominated Asia-wide free trade agreement<\/strong>, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), 4. Negotiate <strong>bilateral free trade agreements with strategic partners<\/strong> like the United Kingdom, Australia, UAE, and Israel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> This post is based on the following articles<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFrom selective to universal engagement\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0published in <b>The Hindu <\/b>on\u00a0<strong>3<sup>rd<\/sup> Jan <\/strong><strong>2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe China hand\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0published in <b>Indian Express <\/b>on\u00a0<strong>3<sup>rd<\/sup> Jan <\/strong><strong>2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021 followed a style of openness and readiness to deal with friends and foes alike. From selective alignment, India moved to universal engagement, even to the extent of convening meetings with antagonists. About India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021 Relations with the US and its allies: India took active engagements with&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-foreign-policy-in-2021-from-selective-to-universal-engagement\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India&#8217;s foreign policy in 2021: From selective to universal engagement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-157973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704835708},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}