Saurabh Shukla**,,
One of the fundamentals of new age diplomacy is to do effective scenario mapping; all countries do it, big powers do it well, while India has the aspirations of being a big power, the problem is that it shies away from playing a decision-making role, but it is taking baby steps in the right direction.
Later this week, the millennium city of Gurgaon will be playing host to global leaders from almost twenty countries for a ministerial meeting of the Indian Ocean rim countries. While for many this may mean some traffic disruptions and long VVIP convoys, beyond that is a larger strategic objective that is tied to India’s global aspirations. With India’s growing hunger for energy, guarding the sea lanes has become a priority for India’s defence and diplomatic policies, since the bulk of the oil comes through them. The sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean are considered amongst the most strategically important in the world.
According to the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, more than 80 per cent of the world’s seaborne trade in oil transits through the Indian Ocean. 40 per cent passes through the Strait of Hormuz, 35 per cent through the Strait of Malacca and 8 per cent through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. That is the reason why the meeting this week of Indian Ocean rim countries is important, as it looks at a coordinated response to guard the sea lanes, which is vital for the economic growth of countries like India. Even the US realises the importance of the grouping and is pushing its case to get onboard the grouping as a dialogue partner. The Gurgaon meeting may see this proposal endorsed, in addition to admitting Comoros as the 20th member. Interestingly, the Indian Ocean rim grouping was India’s idea. While many question the worldview of Nehru, he did have the foresight to assess the importance of the Indian Ocean countries. It was about six decades ago that he envisioned a grouping of countries bordering the Indian Ocean that could help one another in tackling common challenges. The idea was finally realised in 1997, with the formation of Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), aimed at enhancing the economic cooperation among countries of the IOR.
What makes the organisation unique is that, tied to common interests and challenges, it straddles three continents – Asia, Africa and Australia – with diverse backgrounds and perspectives trying to find a common ground.
The grouping has 19 members. There are also five dialogue partners: China, Egypt, France, Japan and the UK, as well as two observers. The Gurgaon meet will work on six priority areas: maritime safety and security – essentially curbing sea piracy and looking at coordinated responses – trade and investment facilitation, fisheries management, disaster risk reduction, academic and science and technology cooperation, tourism promotion and cultural exchanges.
For Manmohan Singh, government diplomacy is one area where they have managed to chug along, albeit without any major disaster. Effective leadership in these groupings is important for the global power status that India aspires for. But India should now capitalise on the gains that it makes through these groupings by implementing these ideas on the ground.
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*Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC
