PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · India & the Global Centres of Power — Part 2

What are the notable features of the recently concluded pact or the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) between India and Japan? How is it likely to address the security concerns of India?

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 signed 9 Sept 2020, in force July 2021 → the name says supplies and services, not bases → reach without obligation

Route 2 India’s logistics network after LEMOA → Japan added as an enabling framework, not an alliance → worth and limit in the same clause

Body flow

permissive design: either may ask, other may provide → fifteen categories, food to port services → activities: exercises, UN peacekeeping, relief, evacuation, port visits → weapons and ammunition excluded → ten years, auto-renewal → distance converted into range → Djibouti / Andamans / Malacca → Malabar, JIMEX easier to sustain → joins the LEMOA network

Counter-view

Basrur and Kutty: autonomy preferred to alliance → so no obligation in a crisis → no reciprocal access agreement, unlike Australia and the Philippines → Lidarev: not a full ally → Taiwan contingency, access becomes exposure

Conclusion routes

Route 1 cost of presence falls, cost of commitment avoided

Route 2 maritime reach gained, land border with China untouched

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2020, India & the Global Centres of Power — Part 2