As India’s economy and military strength develop their sinews, so does its outreach expand to the rest of the world. India is also currently holding the annual Presidency of G 20, providing it an opportunity of setting the agenda of this influential group and tailor a more responsive approach to the global south. The Indian Prime Minister in his opening address in the meeting of the Global South in January, 2023 at New Delhi, had said, “As India begins its G20 Presidency this year, it is natural that our aim is to amplify the Voice of the Global South.”
Amongst the Indian government offices, the Ministry of External Affairs is of course in the lead in reaching out globally, but amongst the others it’s the Defence Ministry that seems to be moving at the trot.
The Ministry of Defence uses multiple methodologies for strengthening relations with other nations. The most common among these are the visits of the Defence Minister and the apex leadership of the three services to various countries, and their reciprocal visits to India. In addition, the three services undertake a host of exercises with the forces of friendly countries thus strengthening not just interoperability and learning each other’s best practices, but also serving to strengthen the relationships. There are other means at the discretion of the MoD to nurture the nation’s foreign policy goals, however, the biggest impact has been through focused conclaves that have witnessed the congregation of the defence leadership of a region as a whole, rather than individual countries.
A concerted attempt at relationship development with a region, while simultaneously promoting export of Indian defence industry was witnessed in the format of The India-Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) held on the side-lines of DefExpo 2022 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. 50 African countries fielded their delegates, including 20 Defence Ministers, seven CDS/Service Chiefs and eight Permanent Secretaries.
Rajnath Singh also hosted IOR+ Defence Ministers’ Conclave on the side-lines of the 12th DefExpo in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on October 19, 2022. The conclave was attended by 40 countries. 22 ministers addressed the conclave; some in hybrid mode. The broad theme was ‘Challenges Opportunities and Collaborations in the Indian Ocean’.
During the Aero show at Bangalore in February 2023. The Indian Defence Minister held bilateral meetings with the defence heads of five African countries – Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Armenia and Congo. The Minister also had meetings with the Heads of defence of three neighbouring countries – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
He also met the Deputy Defence Minister of Armenia, Karen Brutyan; Minister of National Defence, Congo; Tanzania’s Defence Minister, Richard Mondjo, and Basungwa Innocent Lugha, Tanzania. The defence minister met Sri Lanka’s Minister of State for Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon and Security Advisor to Bangladesh PM, Maj Gen Tarique Ahmed Siddique.
Singh also had bilateral meetings with the defence heads of four other countries – the UK, Italy, Zambia and Maldives.
The SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting that Rajnath Singh Chaired in April, 2023 was also a major opportunity for interaction among the top defence leadership of countries attending the meet. Defence Ministers of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan participated. India had also invited Belarus and Iran, currently holding observer states in SCO, to participate in the meet.
During the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meet, according to a PIB release “Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh held separate bilateral meetings with Minister of Defence of Kazakhstan Colonel General Ruslan Zhaxylykov and Minister of Defence of Tajikistan Colonel General Sherali Mirzo in New Delhi on April 27, 2023. The entire spectrum of defence cooperation with the two countries, were reviewed during the meetings, with the focus on identifying avenues to expand mutually beneficial collaborations. Issues of mutual interest were also discussed.”
Off late, there have also been a number of visits by the Indian Defence Minister and top military leadership to countries abroad as also hosting their defence leaders at New Delhi.
A few important ones include Rajnath Sigh’s visit to Mongolia in September 2022. India conducts an annual joint military exercise- Nomadic Elephant with Mongolia. Rajnath’s visit would not be lost on the Chinese. They are very sensitive to their neighbour Mongolia’s foreign policy alignments.
Rajnath Singh also visited Japan, along with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to meet their Japanese counterparts under the framework of ‘2+2’ foreign and defence ministerial dialogue in September 2022. The message that emanated was focussed on the maintenance of the Rules based Order.
The Japanese Vice Minister of Defence for International Affairs Mr Oka Masami called on the Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on 6 April, 2023. During the meeting, Mr Oka discussed the Raksha Mantri on the discussions held during the 7th Defence Policy Dialogue, which he co-chaired with Defence Secretary Shri Giridhar Aramane in New Delhi on 5 April, 2023.
The Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met Rajnath Singh during his 10 – 11 May visit to New Delhi. With the Indians opting for considerable Israeli defence equipment, no doubt the aspect of Israeli-India defence co-operation would have been on top of the agenda.
Rajnath Sigh attended the swearing-in ceremony of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 29 May, 2023. India has a strong relationship with Nigeria driven by a sizeable Indian diaspora settled there. This was the first visit of an Indian Defence Minister to Nigeria
The US Defense Department announced that “the first international trip by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who will also visit three more nations in the Indo-Pacific region to discuss the strengthening of existing partnerships and alliances there, will include India. The secretary will first visit the Headquarters U.S. Indo-Pacific Command at Hawaii, followed by India, Japan, France and Singapore. Defence innovation and promoting industrial co-operation will be on top of the agenda. Progressing strategic collaboration under the framework of the US-India Major Defence Partnership would also be a key issue.
Parallelly, the German Defence Minister will be visiting India and meet his Indian counterpart.
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan undertook his maiden visit abroad with a trip to the US. According to an ANI report the CDS visited San Diego in California where top military officers from the United States, Australia, Japan and Australia were participating in a conference on Indo-Pacific region organised by the Hoover Institute there.
The three Indian service chiefs have also undertaken visits to a large number of countries to further military to military relationships that in turn strengthens bilateral ties.
An increase in military budgets and greater interaction with friendly countries to face common threats together is also a global trend. With the Chinese threat proving to be both substantial and increasingly aggressive in design, countries are trying to strengthen their relationships with others to face an uncertain future. Most vulnerable are the countries of Southeast Asia that frequently face Chinese bullying in the South China Sea.
Taking a global view of the confluence of geostrategy and geopolitics, the Ukraine war provides a good example. The European Union countries have reviewed their military capabilities which are too heavily dependent on the USA. It has led to these countries now setting aside larger budgets for their defence modernisation. Geopolitically too, EU today is a tighter entity.
The Chinese have benefitted substantially from the conflict with the Russians being forced to lean towards them, forming a possible axis. However, the survivability of such an alignment with Russia as a junior partner may not be sustainable until and unless Russia faces a very adverse situation in Ukraine and its own territory is threatened. Such a probability is barely predictable, however much it be the desired end state that EU and USA look forward to.
The ever-expanding Chinese expansionist objectives are quite apparent with the continuous presence of Chinese naval ships in the Indian Ocean. They have port and base facilities developing at Gwader, Pakistan and Djibouti. However, that’s not all in the list. China is also reportedly building a military installation in Equatorial Guinea, one of the smallest African countries. It would be its first base in the Atlantic.
To meet a possible threat, in the Indian Ocean, we have witnessed the formation of QUAD. Though not a strategic alliance, QUAD has the potential to quicken the pace of combined employment of resources of the member states. The AUKUS, founded in 2021 is a security pact for the Indo-Pacific region between the US, UK and Australia.
An analysis dated 16 August 2022 of Foreign Policy informs that, ‘China has likely considered 13 countries for military basing access, including Angola, Kenya, the Seychelles, and Tanzania, as well as Cambodia and the UAE’.
China’s 1 trillion Belt and Road initiative has ploughed maximum funds in Africa as compared to any other region. The yields expected are not just trade, commerce and political, but also geo-strategic. The barely concealed Chinese objectives call for greater military to military coordination as also stronger relations between the affected states.
Military to military inter-actions provide the muscle essential for objectives in the geo-political domain to be wrestled for. It’s one of those essential support measures that furthers diplomacy. As India strides to evolve as a regional power, in consonance with its already being the fifth largest economy, there is a need for it to convince nations in the region of its ability to play a substantive role to uphold the rules-based order. Even when viewed from a purely isolated nationalist perspective, our rise as an economic power house will need to be shielded by our forces and an architecture of relationships with states that share our values and find confluence with our threat perceptions.
Brig SK Chatterji (Retd)
Editor, Bharatshakti.in
