Opinion | In seeking to be a major global power, India risks being undermined in its own Indian Ocean backyard
- India has been expanding its reach in international politics and pursuing relations with major powers, including the US and Russia
- However, major powers’ growing interest in the Indian Ocean region is creating hurdles for New Delhi’s strategic objectives
In his book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar writes that the country’s grand strategy should be to advance “national interests by identifying and exploiting opportunities created by global contradictions” and maximise “gains from as many ties as possible”.
With this objective, India is expanding its reach in international politics and pursuing relations with the major powers. However, this could be at odds with its interests in the region and its own strategic autonomy.
In the early days of independence, prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was quite determined to keep India out of the big power rivalry that was emerging in the aftermath of the Korean war. He was a proponent of the Non-Aligned Movement, the principles of which were agreed during the Bandung Conference in 1955.
Indeed, India was non-aligned during the Cold War, before switching to strategic autonomy in the post-Cold-War era.
In hedging its bets strategically and building relationships with major powers, it is seeking to ensure that the regional balance of power remains in its favour.
