The Third Eye: India's strategy in current geopolitics

THE international scene in India’s view today is marked by a tentativeness injected by US President Donald Trump in the United State's approach to India and Pakistan, increased influence of China on India’s neighbours, need for India to continue with Russian supplies in the spheres of defence and energy, challenge for India to keep up its active profile in both BRICS and QUAD, revelation of Chinese military support to Pakistan in the military confrontation between India and Pakistan that followed the Pak -directed terrorist attack at Pahalgam, the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and the prospect of India rising to become one of the top economies of the world.

- D.C. PATHAK

The current geopolitics is barely keeping the world from getting pushed towards a new Cold Warthis is primarily because a certain bonhomie still existed between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. International developments are keeping the world scene somewhat in a flux and India’s national strategy has to have the necessary flexibility to cope up with the same.

The strategic paradigms for India are not difficult to define. Adjusting with President Trump’s somewhat erratic style of governance through Executive Directives, in pursuance of his maxim of ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) and the call of ‘America First’ practised in domestic, foreign policy and trade & tariff spheres, has become important. Prime Minister Modi on his visit to the White House in February this year made it clear that India had an approach of understanding towards MAGA or America First and added that India would also like to call for ‘Make India Great Again’.

India did not react to a group of illegal immigrants of India being sent back to this country in handcuffs in a military plane, in the followup on ‘Immigration Emergency’ declared by Trump and took the sensible line that India would cooperate with US in dismantling ‘the ecosystem that had been created to encourage illegal migration to that country’. On balance of trade and tariffs India rightly favoured negotiations -befitting the status of a country that had offered its huge market to the world. Hints of India resisting any stark arbitrariness of the US in matters of trade, however, need to be clearly sent out.

Another point of strategic challenge for India is the Sino-Pak alliance basically operative against India whose military dimension became evident when India retaliated against Pahalgam terror attack by taking out nine terrorist bases in POK and Pakistan.