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Indian diplomacy seems to be drawing a blank when it comes to regional cooperation involving fine diplomacy and seasoned statecraft. The recent events relating to India's attempts towards getting natural gas from Bangladesh and Myanmar and the negative response from Bangladesh suggest that it is unlikely to obtain any gesture of
New Delhi has the chance to shape the global agenda and advocate for its vision of multilateralism.
Global energy markets have battled continuous uncertainty over the past three years, disrupted first by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. India has been adept at navigating both these disruptions, using economic diplomacy to position itself favourably in the geopolitics of oil. New Delhi’s delicate balancing of its political relationship with both Washington DC and Moscow has been accompanied
Triangular cooperation aims to forge global partnerships and foster sustainable global development. In such a system, traditional donors provide financial and technical support to facilitate development activities between two developing countries in the South, i.e. one emerging donor country and a beneficiary. Triangular cooperation allows nations to learn from the mistakes of the pioneers of the development cooperation process, bringing about co
Its future will be defined by how it responds to the crisis in Ukraine, and in the shadow of growing Russia-China ties
Iran is critical for stabilising India's northwestern marches, providing access to Central Asia and in meeting India's future energy needs. The pursuit of these separate but significant interests in the West Asia is bound to produce multiple contradictions. Managing them will be a great challenge for Indian diplomacy.
Southeast Asia has been one of the key components of Japan's foreign policy in the post-Cold War period. It is one region where Japan's diplomacy has accomplished considerable success in coming to terms with the challenges posed by the legacies of the Second World War. Successive Japanese governments since 1952 have always maintained that the stability and security of ASEAN countries are closely tied to Japan's security and prosperity.
Japan's engagement with SE Asia focuses through expanding economic ties, cooperation on maritime issues and building close diplomatic relations through Abe's travel diplomacy. This is Japan's 'pivot' to SE Asia and it is here to stay given its strategic rivalry with China.
The expanding engagement with the Japanese navy, one of the strongest in the world, should give a boost to India's maritime diplomacy in Asia. If New Delhi's interests in the Pacific are growing, Tokyo's naval profile in the Indian Ocean has begun to expand.
A detailed study of Japan's role in the peace settlement of the Cambodian issue is important as it was one of the earliest political efforts made by Tokyo in a region which had been known for its antipathy to Japan due to the strong historical memories of the Second World War. Southeast Asia posed one of the most serious challenges to Japan's post-war diplomacy which had to wrestle not only with the bitter legacies of the war, but also with the r
The Modi government has been diplomatically polite and is in no haste to reach out to Pakistan for bilateral talks yet.
When a government yields to every pressure group at home, its capacity to pursue national interests abroad inevitably erodes. The UPA government's diplomacy in the final months of its decade-long tenure is a good example of the costs of violating this canon. The failure to clinch a commercial agreement on Kudankulam with Moscow is not a reflection on India's diplomatic skills.
This paper examines security collaboration in the Bay of Bengal. It argues that despite increased cooperation in the maritime domain, the security perceptions of Bay states differ significantly, arising primarily from disagreements associated with China’s presence in the region. Crucially, the Bay states are wary of being seen as siding with India to counterbalance China. Even in nontraditional security areas where cooperation is readily possib
The Indian Ocean region is yet again witnessing another phase of strategic rivalries, with global powers including the US, China and India competing to create their own zones of power. The Indian Ocean has historical signicance as a key corridor for both trade and energy resources from the oil-rich Middle East to the big economies of East Asia. The nature of challenges facing the region are evolving. Economically, the Indian Ocean has become more
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi winds down an intensive phase of foreign policy activism, one surprising feature of his diplomacy has been the frequent evocation of Buddhism. The PM has put Buddhism at the heart of India's vigorous new diplomacy.
Alternatively, for India, BRICS remains a non-West platform as reiterated by PM Modi at the Russia summit that the organisation must not foster a notion that it seeks to replace international institutions.
India, Iran and Russia have decided to begin using the part-ready International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multimodal network of sea, rail and road routes between India, Iran, Central Asia and Russia. As the broader politics in the region undergo new configurations that may put to question the project’s prospects, and the evolving security situation demands continuous appraisal, it is time to refocus discussion on the economics o
Development cooperation has gained further currency in a post-pandemic world amid staggered economic growth and an increasing gap in financing the Sustainable Development Goals. As a strategic geographic expanse, the Indo-Pacific has witnessed an upswing in cooperation programmes under different modalities (North-South, South-South, and triangular development partnerships). This paper explores the role of development cooperation as a tool of dipl
India needs to clearly highlight its boundaries to the US to avoid being a collateral damage.
India's flagship economic diplomacy programme, the grant of Lines of Credit (LOC), has had immense success in expanding the country's development cooperation around the world. In the African region, for instance, countries have found LOCs to be appropriate alternatives to traditional development assistance. LOCs are a popular tool among countries looking to fund their development goals. Closer to home, Nepal has received more than $1 billion in d
India's challenges in negotiating a new framework for internet governance do not lend themselves to the old clichés of Indian diplomacy. Instead, India must strive to find the appropriate balance between the multiple antinomies that define the debate.
Since being initiated by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally in 2016, Tokyo’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision has become the preferred framework for diplomatic engagement among like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific. This paper undertakes an assessment of FOIP. The motivation is threefold: first, it creates an understanding of Tokyo’s vision of maintaining a stable global order; second, because FOIP has become inclusive—it
As the world today looks up to India as a net security provider, Delhi needs to recast its peacekeeping strategy by modernising its decision-making structures, expanding domestic defence capabilities, and strengthening its military diplomacy.
While bus and cricket diplomacy is being played out with unbridled passion across borders, a dispassionate and more realistic discourse on human rights violations in Kashmir should form part of the new-found bon homie between India and Pakistan. There is a reason why such an assessment is important.
PM Abe has activated Japan's Central Asian diplomacy like no other leader did before. However, he is realistic enough to understand the enormous Chinese influence in the region. Rather than seeking to supplant that influence, Abe only wants to project Japan as an important and useful partner in the Central Asian scene.
The UK withdrawing its candidate to the ICJ is a tribute to smart and aggressive diplomacy by India.
The Russian President’s actions this week may yield tactical gains but hardly pass the test for strategic victory
There are clear differences between India and the rest of the Quad, but it is also evident they are willing to work together to resolve those differences.
PM Modi's queue for a reality check to balance diplomacy, with domestic interests, for keeping the economic interests higher.
After a decade, officials from India, Japan, Australia and the United States convened in Manila in November 2017 to renew their quadrilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. While the agenda of the quad is still unknown, this paper presents a political-military strategy for the grouping directed at shaping Chinese behaviour in the region. Viewing strategy through the ends-means-ways lens, the paper describes key objectives of dissuasion, deterre
US President Donald Trump’s ham-handed handling of global diplomacy has once again brought the world back to early 1990s when the threat of American unipolarity drove countries like Russia, China and India towards collective action.
There is no doubt that International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans often come with a set of conditionalities that most countries find unfavourable to implement. With its ongoing economic crisis and complex multilateral debt negotiations between creditor nations, Sri Lanka is no exception.
Global growth is expected to experience an uptick this year due to renewed economic activity in the emerging and developing market economies. These economies have large investment requirements for infrastructure development and maintaining a sustainable level of economic growth—for which they are dependent on international credit markets. With the growing need of economies to borrow capital abroad, the role of credit rating agencies—most of t
Smt. Sushma Swaraj was at her best in Parliament while she covered a wide terrain, from Pakistan, China West Asia to Indian diplomacy.
The Russia-Ukraine war has raged for over 10 months now, and the expectation of an easy Russian walkover over Ukraine has been belied. The war is witnessing strong and determined resistance from the Ukrainian forces, with the support of Western countries through arms and other forms of aid, and sanctions against Russia. This report explores how sanctions are used in modern diplomacy and warfare, and their impact on the Ukraine war and the global
This paper looks at debates from the days of the British Raj until now that have shaped India's strategic thought on Afghanistan. It highlights the impact of India's territorial construct on its strategic imagination and argues that India's Afghan policy is determined by its political geography. Afghanistan has proved to be a security lynchpin in South and A Central Asia over the last two decades. Home to a variety of militant networks with regi
Exploring India's successful management of Cyclone Fani, Nepal's Buddhist diplomacy and other recent developments from South Asia.
As the pressure on the new government in Jakarta increases to overtly declare its status against the Chinese in the South China Sea, it also risks falling into the 'extended coercive diplomacy' strategy of the Chinese which focuses on the coercion of an adversary aligned with the US.
South Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy, released in December 2022, highlights the country’s willingness to engage with the Indo-Pacific concept, shedding the ambiguity of the earlier stance under President Yoon Suk Yeol’s predecessor. This policy step up recognises emerging geopolitical trends that require South Korea to engage with new territories previously overlooked in its strategic radar, such as the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This brief
