It won’t be an overstatement to say that Bharat’s foreign policy has come of age during S. Jaishankar’s tenure. Since S. Jaishankar took over as foreign minister, the paradigm shift in Bharat’s foreign policy from the clutches of non-alignment to the framework of issue-based cooperation within a multilateral world order is visible. That is precisely why Bharat is able to walk the tightrope of balancing its bilateral equation between countries like the US and Russia, Arab states and Israel, etc.
The issue-based partnership mode that Bharat has chosen gives it enough space to maneuver and let its relationship with a country be guided by points of mutual convergence rather than get unhealthily obsessed with points of divergence. This saves us much energy and focus as with any given country in any given era, there are bound to be points of divergence. If the aim of our foreign policy becomes solely to focus on those, we cannot move forward.
It’s in the context of this newly evolved issue-based foreign policy orientation of Bharat that the recently held 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between Bharat and the US needs to be looked at.
The Bharat US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue was recently held in the Bharatiya capital Delhi. The Bharatiya delegation was led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, and the US delegation was led by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austen.
Now let’s focus on the key takeaways of this dialogue. The joint statement released after the dialogue put the spotlight on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Indo-Pacific issue, terrorism, and the defence partnership between the Bharat and the US. Now coming to the first focus area, the Israel-Palestine conflict. The declaration condemned the terrorist attacks on Israel in clear terms, without mincing words, thus accommodating the position of both Bharat and the US on this issue. Unlike the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Palestine conflict is an issue on which Bharat and US are more or less on the same page. So the joint declaration categorically condemned the brutal terrorist attacks on Israel, talked about the release of hostages, and didn’t make any demands for a ceasefire. It obviously also mentioned that a peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict was necessary and that the Palestinian civilians should be offered all possible humanitarian assistance.
So far so good. But the resolution stopped short of condemning Hama for the terror attacks on Israel. It condemned the attacks but didn’t mention Hamas. Now, the US and the EU besides Israel have already designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Bharat hasn’t done that yet. In its official condemnation of the terrorist attacks on Israel as well, the Bharatiya government stops short of naming Hamas. About 2 weeks back, Israel’s Ambassador to Bharat Naor Gilon had also called on Bharat to designate Hamas officially as a terrorist organization. Bharat hasn’t acted on this request yet. Perhaps, the government is making certain calculations from the elections point of view, or is cautious of the possible unrest that can be created by the leftists and Islamists, should Bharat come out strong on Hamas. But this certainly doesn’t reflect well on Bharat’s position vis a vis Israel and our position on terrorism. The silence on Hamas in the Bharat US 2+2 Dialogue joint resolution seems more of a result of Bharat’s reservations then. Now, Bharat has also voted in favor of a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestine. This seems to further complicate things and could create some tensions in the Bharat-Israel relations.
On the Indo-Pacific, the resolution ticks all the right boxes in theory. There is talk about keeping the Indo-Pacific safe and secure, ensuring that the multilateral world order is maintained in the Indo-Pacific, there is also talk of increasing connectivity in the religion along with a mention of the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic corridor. The proposed corridor is to be positioned as a counter to China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative that has landed many countries into a debt trap. As the world gets increasingly critical of BRI, countries are also opting out of the project. Italy is the latest country to opt out of BRI.
The Bharat-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue Joint Statement has a separate section devoted to condemning terrorism and emphasizing counter-terrorism cooperation between Bharat and the US. This section condemns the 26 11 Mumbai terror attacks and the Pathankot attacks. UN-designated terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, etc have also been named in this section, and the need to take concrete action against them has been emphasized. The section however stops short of naming Pakistan.
The omission of Pakistan in the section on terrorism in a joint statement issued after the Bharat-US 2+2 Dialogue could become a major diplomatic embarrassment for Bharat. The US is probably trying to revive its relations with Pakistan so this exclusion could be seen as a bid for appeasement. But for Bharat, a section condemning terrorism that doesn’t name Pakistan, the very factory of terrorism as far as Bharatiya soil is concerned, is nothing short of a joke. Bharat should not be lax on this and should continue to lobby internationally to further expose and condemn Pak-sponsored terrorism which is nothing short of a well-planned policy supported and promoted by their government.
Then, there is a separate section on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan calling on the Taliban “to adhere to their commitment to prevent any group or individual from using the territory of Afghanistan to threaten the security of any country; and noted UNSC Resolution 2593(2021), which demands that Afghan territory not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or finance terrorist attacks”. The mention of Afghanistan in the joint statement is certainly a diplomatic win for Bharat since the issue has been off the radar of the west ever since Taliban captured power in Afghanistan. Bharat has consistently highlighted the hypocrisy of the west when it comes to problems in their immediate neighborhood (Russia-Ukraine) versus problems that take place far off (Taliban in Afghanistan and Pak-sponsored terrorism of which Bharat is a victim). It’s only because of Bharat’s relentless lobbying on various international platforms that the issue of terrorism is not discussed at an international level. So overall, it’s a good beginning. But Bharat should not stay silent and accept the consolidation of the Taliban in Afghanistan as the de-facto government as it’s fate. Bharat has to relentlessly lobby to create the atmosphere for elections in Afghanistan so that the Taliban is eventually pressurized to hold democratic elections. Bharat has to remember that it’s far from safe until a terrorist organization is sitting as the de facto government in a neighboring country.
Finally, there is no mention of the Khalistan issue in the joint declaration or some sort of condemnation of the Canadian government’s open support of Khalistani terrorists. This is a disturbing development. There have been multiple instances of anti-Hindu hate crimes and attacks on Hindu temples and Bharatiya consulates in the west by Khalistani terrorists. Hindus in general are becoming victims of Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu hate in the west. A resolution on Hinduphobia has recently been tabled in the Canadian parliament. Hindus in the US are increasingly being targeted and harassed in the name of caste, and motivated Bills are being introduced by anti-Hindu legislators all over the US to malign the Hindu community of the US. These issues are out in the open. Yet, the Bharatiya government is reluctant to take up Hindu issues at diplomatic levels.
The west doesn’t shy away from cornering Bharat on alleged human rights abuses of minorities, the Bharatiya government’s apparent crackdown on freedom of expression, etc. These are fabricated issues to keep Bharat diplomatically pressurized and there is an unending supply of these issues by the woke factory. But why is it that the Bharatiya government shies away from raising even genuine issues affecting Hindus worldwide? We have never seen the government being vocal about the issue of human rights violations of Hindu minorities in countries like Bangladesh.
The geopolitical clout of Bharat has risen dramatically over the past decade. Bharat must realize its own power and not shy away from playing the boss and defining its own terms of engagement for international diplomacy.
