PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Recent Developments in Foreign Policy — Part 1
Write a brief note on India’s interests in West Asia.
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
FEYUN GNM F ORY —— FOW CHC AHOWC! MHIUVES R1 West Asia central to India’s foreign policy — interests material before ideological R2 four interests (energy / people / trade / defence) > pursued via a de-hyphenated, multi-aligned strategy, no bloc
Body flow
energy first (~88% crude, Gulf + Iran, Hormuz exposure — Pant /ORF) — diaspora + remittances (~9m in Gulf; safety > June-2025 evacuation) > trade & connectivity (Chabahar 2024 + INSTC -— Central Asia; IMEC 2023 G20 – “Act West”/connectivity leadership; tied to a Saudi-Israel normalisation frozen by Gaza) + defence & three-pole logic (Taneja: Gulf economic / Israel technology / Iran neighbour) — all engaged without choosing = multi-alignment
Counter-view
strength = each pole accepts India’s ties with the others; strain = one regional war forces every interest onto the table at once (IMEC frozen by Gaza already shows the fragility)
Conclusion routes
R1 interests led by energy + diaspora, backed by trade, routes 5 — connectivity, defence, held together by multi-alignment R2 “calibrated multi-alignment” (Pant): balance as the source of influence — real test = whether it holds as conflicts deepen
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
