The milestones of Indian Foreign Policy @ 70

There is unprecedented turbulence in the world today. India is required to skillfully and nimbly navigate its way through these volatile and precarious circumstances and promote its national interests.

Till the cold war lasted, from the end of the Second World War till the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the world was divided into two more or less neat sets of powers that were aligned against each other. In spite of the tension, there were certainty and continuity in the world order. There was a large array of countries which were non-aligned but their predilections to choose between the two groups of countries was quite evident.

The whole edifice of international relations, however, came tumbling down with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the single dominant power in the world. India which was feeling stifled because of its perceived closeness to the Soviet camp quickly grasped the opportunity and decisively reached out to the West. Some specific actions in this regard included the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, and launch of the ''Look East Policy.'' These decisions were motivated by India's desire to take benefit of the technological and innovative prowess of Israel, and rejuvenate its economy and strategic heft by reaching out to the Asian Tigers and cub economies which had started performing strongly from the early '80s.

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This display of increased strategic autonomy and independence of action by India became visible in the nuclear tests conducted by the Vajpayee government in 1998. These culminated in the India-US civil nuclear deal, the framework for which was signed in July 2005 and which crossed the final hurdle with the approval of the unique waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group in September 2008.

India's relations with the US and the West were further strengthened when President Barack Obama declared, during his first visit to Delhi in 2010, US support for India's membership in an expanded UN Security Council.

India's vigorous reach out to its partners in all corners of the globe received a huge impetus with the advent of the Modi led NDA government in May 2014. While giving special priority to the neighbouring states, P-5 countries and the middle rung powers, Modi has not neglected Africa or comparatively smaller players.

The United States received special attention by Prime Minister Modi. This resulted in Obama becoming the first US president to visit India twice during his tenure. He was also the first US President to be the Chief Guest at India's Republic Day Celebrations in January 2015. As Modi declared during his Address to the US Congress in June 2016, a strong India is in the interest of USA and also that India has overcome the ''hesitations of history'' in forging closer and stronger ties with America. While earlier there might have been a concord of values between the two democracies, today there is also a strong convergence of interests.

India has also reached out to Russia to bring the partnership on a more robust and substantive plane. The India-Russia summits in 2016 at Goa and in 2017 at St Petersburg have imparted a huge fillip to bilateral ties. In addition to promoting political and strategic understanding to jointly fight terrorism, concrete steps have been taken to promote collaboration in nuclear energy, defence acquisition and to joint production of state of the art defence equipment, fossil fuels, and space research.

India, however, needs to accept the fact that Russia's ties with Pakistan are warming. Also, Russia has reached out to the Taliban with the intention of engaging it in finding a solution to Afghanistan security issue. While sensitizing Russia on India's concerns on both these issues at every available opportunity, India should continue to strengthen and expand its partnership with Russia.

While India's relations with most neighbours have improved and witnessed an upward trend, those with China and Pakistan have visibly come under increased stress. With Pakistan, the fundamental bottleneck is the latter's support for terrorism. Relations can get better only when Pakistan abjures the use of terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy.

With China, India has taken several initiatives to improve ties, only to be met with rebuff. China looks upon India as its strategic adversary and sees itas the only power which can challenge its rise to dominance in Asia and globally. It is in a hurry to attain the Middle Kingdom status which it feels it has lost because of the ''century of national humiliation'' and due to unequal treaties imposed on it by foreign powers.

The Doklam standoff is only a symptom. It is not the cause of tense relations between India and China. While India feels that there is adequate space - political, strategic and economic - for the two countries to grow and realise their potential, China considers it to be a zero sum game. China would like to scuttle and stunt India's growth at every possible step. Only this can explain its decision to abort India's membership of UNSC, of NSG, to block proscribing Azhar Masood as a terrorist by UN, and its use of most abusive and insulting language against India in the Doklam face off episode.

On the contrary, India has conducted itself civilly. A new matrix of ties with China will have to be worked out in the coming days because irrespective of the manner in which the Doklam issue is resolved, relations between India and China will never be the same. It cannot continue to be business as usual.

India has reached out proactively to a number of increasingly important middle powers like Japan, Germany, France, UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Vietnam and others to create a web of partnerships that are mutually beneficial to India as well as to these countries.

In addition to promoting India's influence and voice in international affairs, one of the significant objectives of Modi's foreign policy is to harness the strengths of its foreign partners to India's benefits. The goal is to promote India's economic development through getting help in technology, capital, management practices, and professional training. India's foreign policy initiatives are now closely tied to major national initiatives, such as Make in India. Smart Cities, Skill India, Digital India, Clean India, among others.

In addition, Modi visited several other countries, such as Mongolia, Fiji and Central Asia which have thus far not received the desired attention although they are strategically and economically important for India.

Today the Atlantic Order has ceased to be the predominant framework in which international relations are conducted. Notwithstanding the fact that overall GDP of China might overtake that of USA in the coming years, the salience of USA will, however, continue to dominate world events. America's supremacy is still strongly grounded in technology, innovation and military prowess. China has a long way to go to be recognised as a super power. It still does not have the network of collaborative alliances, built on a similar set of ideology that the USA and the West continue to be a part of.

Today India has evolved from a non-aligned state of the Cold War years to a multi-aligned state, wherein it seeks to maintain robust and vibrant ties with a wide and diverse array of global powers. This shift in diplomatic postures has become indispensable for India to promote its security interests, territorial integrity and in fostering economic development.