SHIKHAR Mains UPPSC 2021 Day 34 Answer English

Q1. For India, the formation of the new Indo-Pacific coalition AUKUS is a welcome step. Critically analyze.
भारत के लिए, नए इंडो-पैसिफिक गठबंधन AUKUS का गठन एक स्वागत योग्य कदम है। समालोचनात्मक विश्लेषण कीजिए|

Approach:

• Starting with AUKUS, provide the objective of the formation of the coalition.
• Mention the significance of the grouping in general.
• How the formation of the same is a welcome step for India.
• Highlight the concerns associated with the same.
• Conclude suitably with a way ahead for grouping.

Answer:

AUKUS is a recently formed security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The objective of the coalition is to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and deepen security cooperation in other areas, such as defense-related artificial intelligence and quantum computing, cyberwarfare, and underwater technologies.

From New Delhi’s perspective, the new coalition signals a strong political resolve in Washington to confront the growing security challenges from Beijing. The new Australian-U.K.-U.S. coalition is among treaty allies, but also aims at leveraging nuclear cooperation to facilitate strategic outcomes in the Indo-Pacific to significantly enhance Australia’s military capabilities and bind it in a long-term relationship to Britain and the United States.

India is increasingly preoccupied with overland threats from China, it needs enduring partnerships to protect its maritime flank. Although India’s naval capabilities are significant, the scale and scope of the threat presented by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy have led India to focus on a wide range of maritime coalitions, including the Quad as well as separate relationships involving Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and France.

• For one, in the aftermath of the Afghan rout, it is a powerful signal from the US that it is still in the game as the most important world power, that it is not withdrawing into a domestic shell, and that the traditional Anglo-Saxon alliance that has fought several wars on the same side for over a hundred years, is in robust health. AUKUS joins the ANZUS and Five Eyes, two other security alliances in the Indo-Pacific.
• Two, with the agreement for the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines (different from nuclear-armed submarines) to Australia, this alliance, quite unlike the Quad, is a clearly stated security/military alliance in the Indo-Pacific.
• Three, like the Quad, AUKUS is aimed at protecting the partners’ strategic interests in a region that spans two oceans and 38 countries, where China’s ambitions and assertiveness are challenging the existing status quo.
• Four, it marks a new low in Australia-China relations, and the ripples of this will be felt across the region. China is Australia’s biggest trading partner with a two-way trade of nearly US $200 billion, the largest buyer of its iron ore, natural gas and coal.
• Five, the US decision to transfer closely held military nuclear capability to Australia is not just expanding nuclear cooperation for strategic objectives, it is also a message to China that Washington could one day do the same for other countries in the region. Beijing is more rattled by AUKUS than by Quad.

However, there are multiple concerns associated with the same:

• The timing of the formation of AUKUS just before the Quad leaders meet has the potential to overshadow the latter.
• It might signal that the U.S. is engaging with the Quad to less substantive issues in the Indo-Pacific.
• The U.S. is now promoting a security partnership with its “Anglo-Saxon” treaty allies upsetting the balance of power in the region.
• India views that the agreement could set off new tensions to India’s east adding to the substantial turbulence in India’s west caused by the developments in Afghanistan.
• India does not see AUKUS as nuclear proliferation but it has noticed the protests from others, especially France as a concern.

However, for India, this formation is a welcome development as this is a move to contain China. As the only country in the Quad with a long, and recently turned hot land border with China, India now has a little less to worry about on the maritime front with AUKUS in play. It also buys Delhi more time to beef up the country’s own naval capabilities. India’s interests lie in deeper strategic cooperation with France and Europe as well as the Quad and the Anglosphere. India’s diverse relationships in the West must be deployed in full measure to prevent a split in the Indo-Pacific coalition.

Q2. Regional connectivity is a vital cog to India's neighborhood first policy. Discuss the initiatives taken and associated challenges.
भारत की पड़ोस पहले नीति (नेबरहुड फ़र्स्ट) के लिए क्षेत्रीय संपर्क महत्वपूर्ण है।इस संदर्भ में की गई पहलों और संबंधित चुनौतियों पर चर्चा कीजिए|

Approach:

• Start with the importance of India in regional architecture and the meaning of regional connectivity.
• Mention the importance of regional connectivity.
• Discuss the multiple initiatives taken up by India and associated challenges
• Conclude suitably on the note that India needs to ensure holistic regional connectivity.

Answer:

India’s central position in the region signifies that without its participation, cross-border connectivity is a non-starter. In this regard the regional connectivity is a concept requiring multiple regional networks such as trade and transport, information and communication technology, energy related infrastructure and also across the people network.

The concept of regional connectivity has been important for multiple reasons especially in the context of India:

• Supply chain development and also ensuring holistic regional integration to help India a
• Digital connectivity acts as a growth enabler and further, the same is helping in reducing inequality.
• Fulfillment of India’s energy demand can be through the new forms of the energy cooperation facilitated by the regional connectivity.
• Facilitating development in the border areas, hinterland, land-locked and neglected areas of the North-East.
• Improving India’s standing and stature at the global level and further fulfilling India’s cultural outlook.

In ensuring the same, India has taken multiple initiatives including:

• Transport infrastructure: Kaladan multimodal project, India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway, INSTC, etc.
• Energy connectivity: Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline for oil and gas connectivity, India energy exchange, etc.
• Multilateral engagements: Strengthening Mekong Ganga corridor, BIMSTEC, etc.
• Digital connectivity: GSAT-9, India’s digital village, e-vidya Bharti, etc.
• Logistical arrangements: Motor vehicle agreement, Ashgabat agreement, inland water transit and trade, etc.
• Initiatives related to global connectivity through one sun one world one grid, project SAGAR, Mausam, etc.

However, despite such importance, there are just a few examples indicating how connectivity has become the new consensus across the Indian government and is making unprecedented progress. But keeping this momentum will not be easy, with a variety of challenges on the horizon:

First, Significant implementation deficiencies and policy coordination challenges between various ministries. With Myanmar, for example, the Trilateral Highway and Kaladan projects have been delayed for almost two decades, affecting India’s reputation. Delhi will also have to do a better job at roping in India’s border states, which are the main stakeholders in deepening cross-border linkages.

Second, China cannot be blamed for doing its own part. Pressuring Nepal or Sri Lanka to limit their economic relations with China because of intangible “security concerns” is no longer sustainable. These countries will continue to balance Beijing and Delhi. Delhi must thus take a “relaxed view” because “in the long run the imperatives of geography, cultural affinities, international politics will bring home to our neighbours the facts of life and of realpolitik.” 

India may never be loved in neighbouring countries, but it can certainly be respected for delivering more, better and faster to support developmental objectives.

Third, for all the investment in the physical infrastructure of roads or ports, the region will not integrate unless India opens up its market and embraces the logic of economic interdependence. There are no shortcuts to the slow process of bottom-up integration of cross-border sectors such as transportation, electricity or water. This also requires short-term sacrifices that will hurt protectionist lobbies at home, especially when it comes to reducing trade barriers.

Fourth, South Asia is no longer India’s exclusive backyard and there are important new players that can support India in developing Indo-Pacific alternatives to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Especially with Japan, India embraced an ambitious agenda of trilateral cooperation, of which Sri Lanka’s Colombo port terminal is the best example, but Delhi seems to have bitten off more than it can chew. Greater exchange of information and coordination may be more effective than pushing for more joint projects in third countries. 

Similarly, within the region, while keeping the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in the freezer makes sense until relations normalise with Pakistan, India will have to complement its bilateral track with other neighbours with greater investment in regional institutions, whether the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) or the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal Initiative (BBIN).

Fifth, cultural and religious values have taken a front seat in Neighbourhood First, which incessantly promotes India as a civilisational hub. But emphasising alikeness is often counterproductive with smaller neighbours, where identity politics favour distinctiveness and also fuel anxiety about greater linkages with India. In the past, Delhi took up the causes of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Madhesis in Nepal, but these have been losing salience in the name of economic and security pragmatism.

Finally, regional connectivity will only succeed if India invests in increasing its knowledge about the region. South Asian and neighbourhood studies have been neglected for decades at Indian universities and there is a generational gap of experts, for example on the rapidly changing political, economic and social dynamics of Nepal or Myanmar.

Thus, to improve upon the same and ensure holistic regional connectivity, there is a need for prioritizing the areas of cooperation, implementing the initiatives step by step, coordinating and cooperating with the like-minded countries, and further strengthening the cross-sectoral approaches for connectivity will ensure the sustainable connectivity.

Q3. Indo-US ties can be the defining partnership of the 21st Century. Analyze the given statement with relevant examples.
भारत-अमेरिका संबंध 21वीं सदी की निर्णायक साझेदारी हो सकते हैं। प्रासंगिक उदाहरणों के साथ दिए गए कथन का विश्लेषण कीजिए|

Approach

• Start with the basis of India-US relationship.
• Highlight the natural evolution of India-US relations as a defining partnership of the 21st century.
• Talk about the areas of strategic convergence in terms of India-US relations.
• Also talk about some recent avenues of convergence like climate change, counter terrorism, etc. and conclude suitably.

Answer:

The U.S.-India partnership is founded on a shared commitment to freedom, democratic principles, equal treatment of all citizens, human rights, and the rule of law. The United States and India have shared interests in promoting global security, stability, and economic prosperity through trade, investment, and connectivity resulting in upgrading of India-U.S. bilateral relations into a "global strategic partnership".

Evolution of Relationship in 21st century:

• George W. Bush’s administration lifts all remaining U.S. sanctions that were imposed on India after its 1998 nuclear test.
• In 2005, the United States and India sign the New Framework for the U.S.-India Defence Relationship, which sets priorities for defence cooperation in maritime security, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, and counterterrorism.
• India and the United States ink the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative, a framework that lifts a three-decade U.S. moratorium on nuclear energy trade with India. Under the agreement, India agrees to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil resources under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In exchange, the United States agrees to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
• The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) allows an exemption to its rules that permits India to engage in nuclear trade for the first time in three decades. The waiver is approved following intense diplomatic efforts by the Bush administration, dating back to 2005 when Washington and New Delhi signed the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative.
• Chandrayaan-1 becomes the first Indian spacecraft to land on the moon. It carries two scientific instruments designed by NASA scientists, which later discover water molecules on the moon’s surface.
• In 2010, the United States and India formally convened the first U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. President Obama says the relationship “will be a defining partnership in the twenty-first century.”
• US backing the India’s long-held bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
• Signing of defence agreements like LEMOA, Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), two-plus-two dialogue, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for elevating defence partnership.
• Commitment to keeping the Indo-Pacific free and open, “particularly in light of increasing aggression and destabilizing activities by China.”

Areas of strategic convergence in 21st century:

Strategic Consultations

• 2+2 dialogues between foreign and defence ministers of both sides.
• Discussions surrounding emerging global concerns like Afghanistan and a range of regional issues of shared interest, as well as key areas of defence cooperation across the Indo-Pacific and western Indian Ocean region.

Economic Relations

• The United States seeks an expanded trade relationship with India that is reciprocal and fair. In 2019, overall U.S.-India bilateral trade in goods and services reached $149 billion. U.S. energy exports are an important area of growth in the trade relationship.

International Cooperation

• India and the United States cooperate closely at multilateral organizations, including the United Nations, G-20, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization.
• India is an ASEAN dialogue partner, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development partner, and an observer to the Organization of American States. India is also a member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), at which the United States is a dialogue partner. In 2019, the United States joined India’s Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure to expand cooperation on sustainable infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region.

Defence Cooperation

• The signing of ‘New Framework for India-U.S. Defence Relations’ in 2005 and the resulting intensification in defence trade, joint exercises, personnel exchanges, collaboration and cooperation in maritime security and counter-piracy, and exchanges between each of the three services.
• U.S. recognised India as a "Major Defence Partner", which commits the U.S. to facilitate technology sharing with India.

Counter-terrorism and internal security

• Cooperation in counter-terrorism has seen considerable progress with intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation, counter-terrorism technology and equipment.
• Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism.

There had been so many decades to overcome the historical mistrust, suspicion and the same is still an on-going process. According to the present dispensation of the US, the US and India will stand together against terrorism in all its forms and work together to promote a region of peace and stability where neither China nor any other country threatens its neighbours.

They are jointly committed to open markets and grow the middle class in both the United States and India, and confront other international challenges together, like climate change, global health, transnational terrorism and nuclear proliferation. India and the US are held by multiple scholars that meet every challenge together as we strengthen both democracies' fair and free elections, equality under the law, freedom of expression and religion, and the boundless strength both nations draw from our diversity. These core principles have endured throughout each nation’s histories and will continue to be the source of our strength in the future.