Feud Among Friends

Context: With AUKUS dividing the Western bloc, India’s interests lie in deeper strategic cooperation with France and Europe as well as the Quad and the Anglosphere.

 AUKUS and associated issues

• AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, United Kingdom, and United States, announced on 15 September 2021.
  • Under the pact, United States and United Kingdom agree to help Australia to develop and deploy nuclear-powered submarines, adding to Western military presence in the Pacific region.
• French concern: France is angry after Australia signed the Aukus pact, pulling out of a major contract with France in the process.
  • As a follow up, France had cancelled a scheduled meeting of the foreign ministers of Australia, France, and India at the UN.
• Wider concerns: As AUKUS could leave a deep scar on US-EU relations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and weaken the international coalition in Indo-Pacific.

Evolving facets of Indian foreign policy: From idealism of non-alignment to multipolar realism of contemporary times

• Active engagements with West: India’s contemporary diplomacy take a nuanced view of internal dynamics in the West, and recognises political agency of individual states, and develops wide-ranging relationships with Western nations.
• Strategic engagement with France:
  • Historical background: In 1990s, France championed the construction of a multipolar world to constrain American “hyperpower”. But India did not seize the opportunity as it embraced Russian-Chinese version of multipolarity.
  • Intensification of strategic engagement over last few years: As India has overcome earlier reluctance to work with France on Indian Ocean security.
• Diversification in relations with Europe: India has stepped up on political engagement with Europe as a collective as well as its sub-regions, from Baltics to Balkans and from Iberia to Mitteleuropa.
• Getting over colonial hangover in India-UK relations: It has been prickly and underdeveloped.
  • Recent new partnerships: Including a financial hub, a technological powerhouse, and punches well above its weight in global affairs.
• Engagements with Anglosphere: India’s neglect of UK meant India had no time for the “Anglosphere” that binds the UK to Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
  • Strong diaspora presence: While diaspora tends to connect domestic politics of the Anglosphere with that of India, Delhi is figuring out that the diaspora politics can be played both ways.
• Closing ties with Japan: Being a fellow Quad member, India-Japan relations are at its best.

Conclusion: India’s interests lie in deeper strategic cooperation with France and Europe as well as the Quad and the Anglosphere.

• Shared interests in securing the Indo-Pacific remains the priority: Current quarrel shall not undermine that larger goal.
• There is enough room for US, UK, France, and Europe to collaborate with Indo-Pacific partners in overlapping coalitions to develop high technology and defence-industrial cooperation in all areas highlighted by AUKUS, underwater capabilities to AI, quantum computing and cyber warfare.