Giving Indian foreign policy its due

A notion that relentlessly echoes in diplomatic circles is that India punches below its weight. While countries having lesser potential don’t hold back in the exhibition of their overtures aimed at hogging the limelight, India, contradictorily, has confined itself to its own affairs and avoids raising its voice over issues that can ‘potentially raise its standing’ in the world order. Interestingly, this notion has huge scope for introspection. The watchers of geopolitics reiterate the fact that India’s foreign policy has got an unprecedented tinge of autonomy with a sense of self-belief and respect for the idea of universal citizenship, mutual trust, and non-interference in internal affairs, among others. In the dynamic geopolitics post Cold War, Indian diplomacy has borne fruits and yielded results, which get referred to as special treatments or exceptionalism. 

The genesis of ‘India-specific waivers’ in Indo-US relations

After the 1998 nuclear test in Pokhran, India acknowledged two things. First, tests were successful and the second pertained to the inevitability of sanctions. The Clinton Administration imposed sanctions on India which eased only with George W Bush replacing the incumbent at the White House. The Bush administration can be considered the first in the US to have laid a strong foundation for a partnership that the US and India share today.

To put things in perspective, in December 2006, the US Atomic Energy Act was amended by Henry J Hyde Act and it marked the saga of exceptions extended to India. The US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, also known as the 123 Agreement, became a reality marking an end to India’s nuclear isolation. Nevertheless, Indo-France Civil Nuclear Agreement was signed earlier in the same year but the USA’s acknowledgement of India as a nuclear partner brought greater acceptance for the South Block. India, a non-signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), was given a bypass route and it led to the coinage of ‘India-specific exemption’ at the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2008. 

The Indo-US Convention on Taxation was also signed, which in the words of then US President George W Bush was, “The first tax treaty between the US and India. It includes special provisions that take into account India's status as a developing nation and that reflect changes in US tax treaty policy resulting from the Tax Reform Act of 1986.” This succinctly summarises India’s foreign policy that has galvanised support across the world without much hullabaloo and trumpeting. 

The recent slew of exemptions that India has received relates to Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). With sanctions imposed over China and Turkey under CAATSA, and Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan, Myanmar, China, Turkey facing sanctions under IRFA, New Delhi’s exclusion shows India’s ascent in the USA’s scheme of things. 

Nonetheless, these exceptions have come amidst New Delhi opting for Russia-manufactured S-400 systems and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendations to put India on the list of ‘countries of particular concern’. 

Exceptionalism in Indo-France relations

This diplomatic phenomenon of exceptionalism is not only confined to the United States. Another major power, France has made some extraordinary exceptions for India in the last few years. The genesis of this treatment lies in the fact that India is looking to diversify its defence purchases before actually phasing out its over-reliance on imports aimed at Aatma Nirbharta. In the meantime, France senses a great opportunity to keep its defence manufacturing buoyed majorly by Indian imports. 

With the Russia-Ukraine crisis testing the alliances and ties between nations, Indo-French relations have withstood the test of time and continue to tread their respective paths to national interest without being intrusive in each other’s affairs. As reported by The Hindu, the Indo-France relations are based on philosophies and are much more than defence purchases, military exercises, the Republic and Bastille Day celebrations, and these are mere manifestations of those philosophies. 

India and France respect each other’s position and refrain from dragging each other into the alliances they belong to. France has openly expressed its apprehensions over NATO Plus which potentially would include India, among other countries, while India too has not been very keen on the prospects of becoming a member of an extended NATO. Both countries are highly categorical about their internal issues and acknowledge the adherence to their respective strategic autonomies. 

In March 2022, France brought a resolution in UN General Assembly regarding ‘unhindered humanitarian aid be allowed inside the conflict zone’ concerning the Russia-Ukraine war. India abstained and France’s effort failed consequently. Despite this development, Paris maintained composure, and as The Hindu reported, ‘no word of disappointment was raised’. The India-centric diplomacy in France also got bolstered when Paris did choose to keep at bay the European Parliament’s criticism of India over the Manipur issue during the recent France visit by PM Modi. 

Has India toed the Russian line?

India’s special treatment goes a long way. In the context of Moscow-New Delhi relations, in its recent Foreign Policy Document, Russia clubbed India along with China as ‘friendly sovereign global centres of power’. The foreign policy document has a special section dedicated to Russia’s partnership with both India and China, outside of its relationship with the rest of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Interestingly, India has not toed the Russian line either. India voted against Russia in August 2022 allowing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to virtually address the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Later in the same year, New Delhi took a stand against Russian demand for the vote through a secret ballot in the General Assembly on a draft resolution over Moscow’s “illegal” annexation of Ukrainian regions. 

In what can be seen as its pursuit of strategic autonomy, India’s actions like opting to join QUAD which Kremlin has obvious apprehensions for, lowering defence purchases from Russia, signing foundational defence agreements like LEMOA, BECA, etc., with the US do not seem to be deterring Kremlin’s trust and support for New Delhi. 

India’s foreign policy motto - Results, not rhetoric

Attaching the highest importance to its national interest, India has maintained amicable and robust relations with countries, varying in the degrees of power and clout. India’s relations with the USA, the sole super-power for at least the next five years, is at an all-time high. USA’s Cold War rival, Russia, too finds India a reasonable ally in its fight against ‘Washington’s arm-twisting’ of nations aimed at galvanising support against Moscow. France, a major defence manufacturer and a country seeking to pursue strategic autonomy in the background of deals getting aborted with the formation of groups like AUKUS, craves reinvigorated relations with India. 

Concisely, noteworthy is the fact that India and its diplomats have never been loudmouths. Indian diplomacy means business and the instances mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. The foreign policy of a country that maintains cordial relations with Russia for continental stability in Asia and does not shy away from siding with the US to ensure tranquillity in the Indo-Pacific is to be seriously reckoned with. 

With both Moscow and Washington balanced, the diplomacy that India has pursued by virtue of its unbudgeable autonomy, glitters as a case study for watchers of geopolitics. These diplomatic feats epitomise India’s proactive foreign policy that believes in results rather than rhetoric.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

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