Historically, India was pursuing a very passive, defensive foreign policy. I would say the foreign policy for most time after independence as “timid”. Some examples are as follows:

  1. India joined the Non Aligned Movement (NAM). India may have gained more had it openly sided with the US led block. For e.g. Keneddy offered Atom bomb, permanent seat in UN security council, several technologies etc. Had US companies started to invest in India from 1950-60s, Indians would have been having a standard of living as South Korea.
  2. India instead leaned towards USSR. What did India lose due to that? USSR installed the Gandhis/Communists who had a very clear anti-India mentality and made all attempts to destroy democracy. India had to follow a kind semi-communist economy due to which the growth of private sector and entrepreneurship suffered. There were many more ways India suffered.
  3. India did not also recognize Israel till 1993 who was ever eager to develop close ties with India. Not only that, I consider India and Israel not only defense, business but more importantly “IDEOLOGICAL PARTNERS“. Both Hindus and Jews have suffered persecution. Both Hindus and Jews have struggled to build a modern nation. Not only that India did not vote in favor of creation of Israel as a new nation at UN.
  4. When west wanted to establish military bases in middle east, India was not that cooperative. It is important for world peace and in India’s interest to keep the rowdy, Jihadi middle east in control.
  5. India did not conduct its nuclear tests early, though China had done it long back.

But come 2014, Modiji has initiated a lot of foreign policy reforms. The policy reforms have accelerated beloved S. Jaishankar moved to foreign ministry office. Let me list few steps that were undertaken in recent few years.

  1. India has definitely aligned with US and west. Due to this, India has signed various defense agreements like LEMOA, COMCASA and CATSA with US which will boost the military might of India.
  2. India has joined the QUAD – the alliance of US, Japan and Australia. QUAD had their first military exercise last year and the leaders of QUAD will have their first summit this month. QUAD will keep China in check.
  3. Recently, India on Sunday signed an agreement with the Maldives to “develop, support and maintain” a harbor at Uthuru Thila Falhu naval base in the island nation giving it a good foot hold in central Indian Ocean Region(IOR).
  4. India is also developing the “Agaleta military base” in Mauritius. Both, the above step and this step will help contain China in IOR.
  5. Sri-lanka is offering India and Japan to develop a terminal of the Colombo port thereby counterbalance China who has got the Hambantota port.

In nutshell, India is not being defensive any more in foreign affairs. We have started becoming aggressive, and have started projecting soft power in the Indian Ocean Region and to some extent in the Eastern hemisphere.

Just being an economic powerhouse wont be enough. India was an economic powerhouse during the 11th and 18th Century. But we still got colonialized. Why? Because, we did not master the trade routes. India produced goods, but the goods were being traded by foreigners. In other words, the economy was controlled by Arab and later the Europeans. Hence, we need to learn from history and play our game right.

However, I think there is a big flaw in our foreign policy? And that is: we are taking reactive steps to what China does. We pursued Maldives after China increased its influence in Maldives. It would be ideal if India takes pro-active steps in foreign policy. Not just chase China.

Another area where India needs to do well is: sign free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries like US, EU, Australia and New Zealand keeping Indian interests in mind so that Indian goods have access to big markets. Such a step would help India get access to big markets and help Indian manufacturing greatly. India just cannot rely on its home market for becoming a 10-15 trillion dollar economy.

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