The Mamallapuram summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi comes in a context different from that of the Wuhan summit and will seek to build on the latter. The Wuhan summit was held in the aftermath of the Doklam crisis and was therefore based on the core bilateral issues with a focus on the security front. Whereas the Mamallapuram summit could put more emphasis on broader regional and global issues of mutual interest as well as on the economic front.
India is indeed a prominent pole of the multipolar world order. In its pursuit to create space to practice strategic autonomy through the policy of multialignment, India has to find new ways of conceiving power and wielding it to its favor.
BRI’s CPEC serves strategic and geopolitical interests rather than economic ones. Secondly, the BRI and especially the CPEC, presents a growing military dimension.
On September 28, the sidelines of the UN General Assembly annual session saw, amongst a multitude of other meetings, the much-anticipated meeting to upgrade the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – also known as Quadrilateral of democracies or the Quad comprising U.S., Japan, India, Australia – to ministerial level. What is making this development hit media headlines is that the Quad is viewed today as the main driver for building a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), as also principally imposing restraint on China’s expansionist impulses especially in the South China Sea.
A solution to the problems created by the North Korean nuclear missile programme is nowhere in sight either in the near or the medium term. This will surely continue to complicate the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as continue to weaken the nuclear non-proliferation regime and undermine the authority of the UN Security Council which has been unable to get its resolutions implemented.
The Indians present in the Southeast Asian (SEA) countries became an important Diaspora after several hundred years of their settlement. This had also become a very important subject of discussion today, particularly when there was political and social prejudice prevailing against the people of Indian origin, mostly in those countries where Indians were brought as indentured laborers during the colonial period but over time, they became strong and prosperous communities.
While broad-basing its inclusive approach in the Indo-Pacific from eastern shores of Africa to the western shores of America, India’s diplomacy has to keep a tab and carefully calibrate its South Asian neighbors’ changing tunes to the emerging discourse on the Indo-Pacific geopolitics.
Indians living within and outside the geographical border would pride upon a strong and united India, the world’s largest ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’ where people celebrate unity in diversity and a country which since time immemorial has been the upholder of and crusader for world peace.
The national security factor played a significant role in the BJP’s victory in the 2019 elections. National security was a significant consideration in 2019 elections, and it resonated with voters like never before.
With Manipur intending to open its border for both trade and movement of people from across the border, beginning of Mandalay-Imphal Bus Service and easing of Visa processing and people-to-people exchanges are expected to gain significant momentum. As the strategic interests of India and Myanmar align, the relations between the two neighbors are set to enter into a new phase of ‘proactive partnership’.