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India aims to enhance its role as a regional leader and global player in space through affordable technology and collaborative efforts with Global South nations
Recently, India marked its maiden National Space Day on 23 August 2024 with the theme, ‘Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India's Space Saga’. This comes at a crucial juncture in the international diplomatic theatre where outer space is gaining traction. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the global space economy is expected to reach US$ 1.8 trillion by 2035, an increase from US$ 630 million in 2023. The space economy serves several purposes such as increasing the prominence of satellites in ensuring the smooth functioning of our daily life, weather forecasting towards disaster-preparedness, remote sensing technology for agriculture, water resource management, facilitating educational activities, promoting telemedicine, and largely contributing towards the sustainability narrative.
Apart from boosting capacity-building through development partnerships, outer space also tends to fulfil critical strategic objectives of advanced nations in the form of militarisation and weaponisation of technologies.
Apart from boosting capacity-building through development partnerships, outer space also tends to fulfil critical strategic objectives of advanced nations in the form of militarisation and weaponisation of technologies. This can possibly result in cyber warfare and also resource mining on celestial bodies, such as asteroids and the moon. In this sense, it is pivotal that developing countries engage in space diplomacy—leveraging space science and technology to bolster foreign policy objectives and domestic space capacities for realising their development targets—to retain their stake in the global space table. Indeed, with weaker economic positions, investing and developing space science and technology is a challenge for developing countries. However, for India, along with its South Asian neighbours, space diplomacy can help bolster regionalism thereby fostering the sustainability agenda.
The international governing bodies for matters related to outer space—the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS)—are largely influenced by the decisions and actions of the Permanent Five (P5) nations, where four out of the five belong to the Global North. This raises concerns of neocolonialism of outer space, where the true ‘winners’ in space exploration are those that already possess influence and economic capabilities. For example, the United States’ (US) apex space body, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), launched the “Psyche” spacecraft in 2023 to explore an asteroid also named Psyche, which is highly rich in unique metals. This would potentially allow the US to mine the asteroid’s resources for its own benefit.
China's increasing space power through ASAT has compelled India to invest in its own capabilities in space weaponisation technologies to protect its own interests.
The European Union (EU) Space Programme’s ongoing initiative, called the ‘Copernicus’ programme, has security and surveillance implications, allowing EU border surveillance to track illegal immigration and monitor critical infrastructure. While not explicitly mentioned in its manifesto, Copernicus may be used for military surveillance during times of conflict or taking pre-emptive action against threats. China’s demonstration of co-orbital Anti-Satellite (ASAT) techniques that can engage, disable, or even destroy ‘non-cooperative’ targets is a direct concern for India and its strategic intent in outer space. China's increasing space power through ASAT has compelled India to invest in its own capabilities in space weaponisation technologies to protect its own interests.
Due to the North’s strong economic position and the advantage of early access to outer space technologies, they have a significant and definitive edge over the South. Through the lens of Wallerstein’s ‘core’, ‘semi-periphery’, and ‘periphery’ countries, the developed countries occupy the “core” and the developing countries, most of which are seen as ‘peripheries’, must carve their own opportunities for space exploration and further their target of space diplomacy in the long-run. In this context, several initiatives have emanated from the Global South in its attempt to build its niche in the outer space regime (Table 1).
Table 1: Prominent space diplomacy initiatives in Global South
| Region | Initiatives |
| South Asia |
- India facilitates and shares expertise through the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), and the UN-affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP). - UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training), an international training programme on nanosatellite assembly and building facilitated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). - India is building a large facility in Vietnam to provide a reliable operational space-based system for remote sensing in Southeast Asia. |
| Latin America and the Caribbean |
- Through joint cooperation with the US, the European Space Agency (ESA), along with Italy and Argentina have launched several satellites. Further, it has also enhanced its cooperation with China. - Argentina and Brazil are jointly creating the SABIA Mar satellite to monitor oceans. - The LATCOSMOS-C program between Ecuador, Mexico, and Colombia aims to launch the first crewed mission from Latin America. |
| Africa |
- The Egyptian Space Agency has signed more than 50 agreements and also has joint cooperative frameworks with China, US, Canada, EU, and Japan, focusing on Earth observation, remote sensing, and water management. - Nigeria has also launched satellites as part of Disaster Management Constellations and the African Resource Management Constellation. - The South African Space Agency is gradually building cooperation with India, France, Russia, and other African countries. |
| Southeast Asia |
- Vietnam has built space capabilities and is building space cooperation with Japan, Israel, and the Netherlands. - The ASEAN Sub-Committee on Space Technology and Application (SCOSA) facilitates space cooperation among ASEAN nations for collaborative space technology applications with international organisations, capacity building, technology transfer etc. |
Source: Namdeo & Vera, 2023
Most of the developing countries, including India to an extent, are significantly dependent on advanced nations from the West or on China. Moreover, their participation in space exploration activities revolves around ‘gathering and transmitting data’ to enhance connectivity amongst their populace and thereby facilitate development. Here, India has demonstrated its interest in furthering space diplomacy and pushing the envelope on sustainable development, helping not only its own growth but also the growth of other countries in the Global South. For example, Project NETRA (2019), India’s own Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system that provides early warnings in outer space to detect debris and other hazards, can be shared with other developing countries to aid them in their own SSA initiatives. India’s low-cost and reasonable launch services, especially through the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) have gained international attention. Also, India has the largest constellation of active remote sensing satellites that prioritise Earth observation, like EOS-06 (2022) and EOS-07 (2023). The data from these satellites can be used in various sectors such as agriculture, water resources, and urban planning. As part of its diplomacy initiatives in outer space, India can share such information with its regional allies and other developing states to facilitate their development targets.
India has demonstrated its interest in furthering space diplomacy and pushing the envelope on sustainable development, helping not only its own growth but also the growth of other countries in the Global South.
Further, in 2017, ISRO launched the South Asia Satellite (SAS), also known as GSAT-9—a “geostationary communication satellite to provide various communication applications in Ku-band with coverage over South Asian countries.” Some of the key features of GSAT-9 include enhancing telecommunication linkages for improved banking systems and education in remote areas, useful natural resource mapping, weather forecasting for natural disasters, and providing linkages people-to-people for health consultation and other allied services.
Clearly, India’s agenda of facilitating the socio-economic development of its neighbours for realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is noteworthy. Yet, the primary objective of placing India formidably as a key regional actor and an essential global player in space diplomacy is conspicuous. In this regard, PM Modi’s explicit declaration of terming this particular satellite as a ‘gift’ to the South Asian region is pertinent. This was also perhaps India’s strongest gesture advocating regional unity and larger cooperation in outer space. In addition, in the recent budgetary allocation, the Department of Space received INR 13,042.75 crores—an increase of INR 498.84 crores from the previous fiscal year.
Since several of the developing countries, especially those in South Asia, lack the wherewithal to develop their own outer space programmes and technologies, space diplomacy for the Global South is mired with challenges. Apart from the requirement of large-scale revenues, several developing countries have conflicting priorities, differing objectives, and limited understanding of this domain. Naturally, it is challenging to create synergies between differing space diplomacy priorities of developing countries, owing to the global polycrisis and geopolitical flux. Experts also note the absence of political will and a clear strategic or policy framework on space diplomacy from the Global South. This leads to temporary and few-and-far-between space cooperation initiatives, which may fizzle out anytime.
Apart from the requirement of large-scale revenues, several developing countries have conflicting priorities, differing objectives, and limited understanding of this domain.
Moreover, there exists an overreliance on the advanced nations when it comes to investments, technological prowess, human resources, and regulatory mechanisms. This could possibly raise issues of encroachment of sovereignty, and geopolitical gameplays like debt traps, thereby diminishing their decision-making power in the long run.
In this sense, India’s space initiatives become essential in furthering the Global South agenda on sustainable development, where its low-cost developmental solutions gain importance. India’s initiative of providing a platform to developing countries through the Voice of the Global South Summit as part of its G20 Presidency is a noteworthy step towards promoting not only South-South Cooperation (SSC) but also North-South cooperation. New Delhi’s intent of sharing its development experience with fellow developing countries can prove useful for bridging the gap in the Global South’s space diplomacy. Although geopolitical rivalries do tend to dilute the larger sustainability objective, it would be interesting to observe how India manages to foster regional cooperation through its space diplomacy in the coming years.
Swati Prabhu is an Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
Aritra Ghosh is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Dr Swati Prabhu is Associate Fellow with the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at the Observer Research Foundation. Her research explores the interlinkages between development ...
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