EXTRACT: Diversification, Strategic Autonomy and Non-alignment There is some expectation that a Modi government, with the size of the mandate that it received, will break from the foreign policy of the past. Some have argued that, at the very least, it would not be “guided by India’s traditional policy of non-alignment.” Yet, Modi’s government—like the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee—has not departed from the strategy that underpinned non-alignment: diversification, which involves establishing and maintaining relationships with multiple countries in order to maximize benefits and minimize risks to Indian objectives. Thus, for example, we’ve seen the government participate actively in a forum like BRICS, with Modi traveling to Brazil for the summit. We’ve also seen Modi continue to engage all the P-5 countries, including traditional partner Russia—bilaterally (with Modi meeting Vladimir Putin in Brazil and the Russian deputy prime minister in Delhi, and Putin expected to visit India in the fall), trilaterally (the Indian foreign minister is expected to travel to Beijing for the China-India-Russia meeting), as well as in multilateral settings.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:11:42 +0000
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