{"id":35085,"date":"2018-10-31T15:09:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T09:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35085"},"modified":"2018-10-31T15:09:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T09:39:48","slug":"from-naysayer-to-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/from-naysayer-to-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"From naysayer to leader:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/united-nations-general-assembly-meet-sushma-swaraj-donald-trump-from-naysayer-to-leader-multilateral-diplomacy-4850007\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From naysayer to leader<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As US President Donald Trump appears before the United Nations General Assembly this week for the first time and outlines his controversial worldview, the Indian delegation led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has an opportunity to build on the new pragmatism in Delhi\u2019s multilateral diplomacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>A change in foreign policy in recent times-A more proactive assertion<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s foreign policy has been \u00a0based \u00a0more recently on a clear sense of its priorities, an integrated view of regions, and a more vigorous effort directed at confidently pursuing multiple relationships simultaneously and making a global impact.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not alienating from the use of soft power, India under the Modi government has emphasized the use of soft power in Indian foreign policy, as evidenced by the International Day of Yoga and its links with the country\u2019s culture and heritage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another \u201cinnovation\u201d is related to the Indian diaspora. While their achievements have long been broadly appreciated, India under the Modi government has been more direct thus far in engaging with overseas Indians.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A \u2018neighbourhood first\u2019 policy- The Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) grouping \u2013 meant to advance motor vehicle movement, water power management, and inter-grid connectivity \u2013 and the common SAARC Satellite, which India has decided to proceed with despite Pakistan\u2019s objections, are the two examples in this regard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There has also been a more explicit link made between diplomacy and national development efforts, with India working hard to leverage its international relationships to bring resources, technology and best practices to further its own development such as through the Make in India initiative<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has tried to engineer stronger partnerships with Japan and Israel .<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In last decades, head of the state never thought of visiting Canada, Australia and Islands of South Pacific. It was for the first time South Pacific gained prominence in India\u2019s foreign policy calculations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s global outreach to clinch India the coveted membership of Missile Technology Control Regime(MTCR),NSG,etc shows India\u2019s interest \u00a0in a more assertive role for itself that seeks to make it a leading power.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s firm stand at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the food-stockpiling issue, central to India\u2019s food security, stood out. After vetoing the WTO\u2019s Trade Facilitation Agreement in Geneva, India made the U.S. climbdown on the food-stockpiling issue. Even the head of the U.N.\u2019s International Fund for Agricultural Development backed the veto, saying the real choice for India in Geneva was between \u201cfeeding\u201d its citizens and \u201ccreating jobs\u201d for wealthy economies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s policy on climate change under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From being the naysayer, India played a key role in generating consensus in the Paris talks on climate change at the end of 2015. When Trump turned the US policy on climate change upside down, Modi reaffirmed India\u2019s support for the Paris accord and promised to work with other leading powers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another huge success experienced this year was the sharp upsurge in ties with the U.S., elevating the strategic partnership to unprecedented levels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s expanding relations with ASEAN and East Asia under Act East Policy are yielding rich dividends.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, China continues to be a challenge that India will have to contend with in the coming years. China\u2019s growing political, military and economic prowess make it increasingly assertive in areas where India\u2019s interests are involved. Beijing\u2019s support for Pakistan, notably with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that crosses territory claimed by India, the DOKLAM issue, the granting of stapled visas to people from Arunachal Pradesh,etc have led to a further straining of ties.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The need for a new pragmatism in multilateral diplomacy<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The era of knee-jerk interventionism by the western countries such as US and allies that followed the end of Cold War may be winding down, thanks to the declining political support in the West for meddling in other people\u2019s<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Some instances at UN where India\u2019s change in stance was evitable are as follows:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India, for the first time, abstained from voting on a resolution on Palestine adopted at the UN rights body that calls for accountability by parties involved in \u00a0conflict in Gaza.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Israel thanked India for not voting on an &#8220;anti-Israel bashing&#8221; UNHRC resolution, which sources said was a result of Tel Aviv&#8217;s sustained talks with the Indian leadership over the past year<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rise of India has encouraged the US and its European allies to put commercial and geopolitical imperatives above proclaimed concerns on human rights and non-proliferation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s thinking on global issues has in recent years moved away from defensiveness to claims of leadership. Nothing illustrates this better than India\u2019s policy on climate change under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From being the naysayer, India played a key role in generating consensus in the Paris talks on climate change at the end of 2015<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NDA government has also mobilised multilateral pressure on Pakistan to stop supporting cross-border terrorism but has run into resistance from China, Islamabad\u2019s ally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finding common ground on specific issues with the US, China, Japan, Europe and Russia in smaller plurilateral fora has indeed become an important part of India\u2019s multilateral diplomacy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was demonstrated by the trilateral engagement with the top diplomats of US and Japan on the one hand and the BRICS foreign ministers on the other by the Indian foreign minister on the sidelines of UN talks. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has the opportunity to build on the new pragmatism in Delhi\u2019s multilateral diplomacy. The NDA government has over the last three years begun to chip away at the ideological posturing that has long been the hallmark of India\u2019s UN diplomacy. Advancing this transition to realpolitik at the UN should be Swaraj\u2019s main political objective in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From naysayer to leader:\u00a0 Context As US President Donald Trump appears before the United Nations General Assembly this week for the first time and outlines his controversial worldview, the Indian delegation led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has an opportunity to build on the new pragmatism in Delhi\u2019s multilateral diplomacy. A change in foreign&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/from-naysayer-to-leader\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">From naysayer to leader:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704793786},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35085","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}