Eastwards Ho? India’s Relations with the Indo-Pacific

Abstract

E astwards Ho? India’s Relations with the Indo-Pacific edited by E. Sridharan comprising 15 essays by renowned experts on Asian geopolitics, seeks to place India on the strategic map of the evolving Indo-Pacific region as an economic and geopolitical power. At the outset, the editor provides a succinct overview of economic integration in Asia, particularly of China with its neighbours reflected in a massive increase in bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). He points out that despite the absence of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)like security umbrella, East Asian countries have managed to strengthen intraregional economic integration (p. 6). China’s actions have been belligerent but Asian countries do not stand decoupled from China in terms of their economy. In fact, one may argue that NATO-like military alliances do more harm than good. Especially as Russia’s primary contention has apparently been over NATO’s expansion in Europe, leading to the Ukraine crisis. In relation to India’s diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific, Sridharan suggests enlargement of the Indian Foreign Service, strengthening ties between government, academia and think tanks, boosting Diaspora linkages, and increasing institutionalized involvement of India’s states in foreign policy (p. 15). The book explores the Asian security architecture and India’s endeavour to play a larger role in it, given the ongoing fundamental shifts in global and regional balance of power. The Indo-Pacific is replete with multilateral fora, mainly ASEAN-led institutions like the East Asia Summit, which have adequate representation, including China. This has led to a web of overlapping multilateral organizations allowing participation of multiple stakeholders. India’s role, hence, will increasingly become more important based on the multilateral or ‘minilateral’ institutions it helps forge, and how it participates and shapes their agenda in pursuance of its national interest. Srikanth Kondapalli argues that economic interdependencies are not enough to influence India’s and China’s security policies. China’s increasing economic and diplomatic outreach in South Asia will compel New Delhi to invest resources for maintaining its predominant position in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and transform its diplomatic approach towards South Asian neighbours. India may approach development of borderlands with renewed focus, and efforts to radically increase economic and people-to-people exchanges with the neighbouring countries. Strategic Analysis, 2022 Vol. 46, No. 5, 545–547, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2022.2115233