FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD

PRAYAGRAJ, UTTAR PRADESH

NAME- APOORVA RAJ

ROLL NO. – 20 SEC- A

SEMESTER- 4TH

SUBJECT- POLITICAL SCIENCE V

DOS- 24TH JUNE 2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude of thanks to our Political science faculty Miss Anushree
Pandey who has assigned us such a meaningful and purposeful project which helped me to know
more about India’s foreign policy. Assignments like this not only give you knowledge about the
topic but make you do research and understand the topic in different aspects. I would also like to
thank my friends who has supported me and helped me in doing this project. Lastly, I would like
to thank my family which provided me all the necessary resources to complete this assignment.
 Q.1 India-EU relations are like a loveless arranged marriage. Critically discuss.

A variety of adjectives has been used to describe the India-EU strategic partnership. Some call it
an honorary degree or reward conferred by the union on emerging powers as recognition of their
growing regional and international profile. Others call it political declaration of intent. Some
dismiss it as a “charade” without any strategic content or “A Loveless arranged marriage”.

In year 2017 celebrated 55 years of diplomatic relation between India and EU. In 1960, India
was 1s t country to establish diplomatic relation with EU. The joint political statement of 1993-94
co-operative agreement was the foundational agreement for bilateral partnership.

RELATION BETWEEN INDIA AND EU

Over the years of partnership India and EU have signed a number of bilateral agreements and
MOUs in various fields. Notably a Science & Technology Agreement(2001, renewed in 2007),
Joint Vision Statement for promoting co-operation in the field of Information and
communications technology(2001), customs and co-operation agreement (2004), MOUs on CO-
operation in employment and social affairs (2006) and many more

1) ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND TRADE

 The EU is India’s largest trading partner and largest destination for India’s export
 Bilateral trade in goods stands at US$ 92bn in 2018
 India is the largest service provider to EU.

2) ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

 India and EU setup Energy panel to enhance co-operation in energy security

 Co-operation in dealing with renewable energy , coal, and clean coal conservation technology
 Joint Group on dealing with environment , waste minimization ad environmental education

3) SECURITY

 Collaboration on counter-terrorism
 Dialogues on cyber security and privacy

4) CONCERNS IN INDIA-EU RELATION

 Still no negotiation on India-EU Free Trade Agreement (last talk 2013) and Broad Based Trade
and Investment Agreement(BTIA)
 Sanitary and Phytosanitory measures(SPS) and Technical Barrier to Trade(TBT) measures by
India affect relations
 There is differences related to movement of professional
 EU demands significant duty cut in automobiles, Tax reduction in liquors, spirit and dairy
products
 India is asking for “Data secure nation” status to be granted by the EU, but EU is not considering
it.

5) WAY FORWARD

 Need to bridge gap on Intellectual Property Rights.

 India should look for liberal visa regime
 Long pending Free Trade Negotiations should come to an end

Despite being engaged in multiple trade relation it is believed by many that is a kind of loveless
arranged marriage as they both are only restricted to trade and nothing else. India and EU needs
to come together to strengthen bilateral ties and improve trade relations, long term investment
and strategic partnership in various areas.

Q.2 With SAARC stalled, India is turning to BIMSTEC to centre its foreign policy.
Analyse.

This question arises after when in last swearing-in ceremony, India had invited SAARC nations
which included Pakistan but this time, Pakistan was a big miss in the neighbour who was not
invited to the oath taking ceremony due to its consistent support to terrorism against India and
the recent Pulwama attack and this is also a reason why SAARC nations of which Islamabad is a
part were not called. Earlier, India had refused to attend the SAARC summit in Islamabad in
2016 post the Uri terror attack. Most other SAARC nations had backed India’s stand.
Interestingly after deciding to boycott the Islamabad SAARC summit in 2016, India invited the
same grouping of BIMSTEC countries to Goa as part of the BRICS Outreach Initiative.

Day after taking the oath, the Prime Minister of India held separate meetings with all BIMSTEC
leaders exploring ways to further strengthen bilateral ties. BIMSTEC comprises India,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In other words, it is SAARC
minus Pakistan and Afghanistan, plus Thailand and Myanmar.

SAARC

As of 2015, 21% of the world's population and 3.8% or 2.9 trillion US dollars of the world’s
GDP was in the SAARC region. Despite been around for over three decades, SAARC’s
performance has been less than satisfactory with its role in strengthening regional cooperation
coming under scrutiny. SAARC has also been the failure in the area of security cooperation. For
instance, while cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan is a major concern for India,
Pakistan has failed to address this concern.

BIMSTEC

Since most of the members of BIMSTEC are either members of SAARC or ASEAN, it did not
get much momentum earlier but now after SAARC becoming almost defunct because of
Pakistan’s allegiance to terrorism against India, it is believed to emerge as a major and robust
organization of South and Southeast Asia that will include Myanmar and Thailand of ASEAN
countries, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Bhutan of SAARC conglomeration, which
will in a way isolate Pakistan over its support to terrorism. In over two decades of existence,
BIMSTEC has achieved very little. India aims to reverse the trend by bringing in a significant
improvement in its economic engagement within the region without any delay.

BIMSTEC has emerged as an alternative platform for engagement that India has with its
neighbour, leaving the future of already stagnant SAARC bleak. Given the fairly amicable
relationship among member states of BIMSTEC, increasing its performance and effectiveness is
an achievable goal as long as the countries exhibit enough political will and mutual respect.
Having control on the organizations like BIMSTEC will definitely make it easy for India to
establish its new foreign policy and make this organization a new centre for its foreign policy.

Q.3 EAM’s remarks on the topic “Preparing for a different era” at Centre of Strategic and
International studies, Washington DC.

EAM Dr.S.Jaishankar was the ambassador in Washington and the topic chosen by him
“Preparing for a different era” itself suggests that he talks about the condition where the world is
moving towards an era which will be different from the current one and how to prepare for
thriving in that era. Now is the time when the mantras of globalisation are discarded and the race
to become the superpower between America and China is going to affect the rest of the word in a
significant manner. The world was previously believed to be interlinked in it’s activities as well
as thinking and the global problems like climate change and terrorism were fought with
cooperation and shared endeavours. The differences did exist prior too but they were reconciled
through a network of mechanisms, agreements and also due to the role of intermediaries and
alliances between the nation states.

He has discussed about the three principles of the linkage between the modern nation states
through globalisation which are access to global markets, value of global supply chains and
reliance on global skills mobility which are under stress due to the changing world order. The
world order is being changed but still there is no sign of a new order that is to emerge. Its like
people have to live in this intermediate condition for a quite some time and adjusting in this
contemporary world is a big challenge for any country.

Next, S Jaishankar has talked about the effects if the globalisation comes under attack. He says
that once the globalisation is under attack, all of its facets are endangered. Following are the
effects that he has talked about:

 Once globalisation is opposed, its rules will be discarded affecting the institutions that
govern it. It will result in a multipolar world where there will be no Central power rather
the distribution of power will be broadened in the hands of many nation states
  Applying nationalistic principles to international arena will weaken multilateral rules in
respect of economic interests of their own country and because of the concerns towards
sovereignty.
 It will lead to failing of the balance of power system and will fail to act on collective
security or broader concerns leading to unstable equilibriums.

Further he talks about India which has emerged as an industry leader on such plurilateral groups
because it occupies both the hedging and the emerging space at the same time and ability to
reconcile its security interests with its political and developmental ones, allows it great
maneuvering space. The different era is one of focused agreements, specific agendas, flexible
arrangements and greater customization. The reality is that India either reaches out in as many
directions as possible and maximizes its gains or takes a more defensive approach of avoiding
engagement. This is not just about greater ambition but it is also about not living in yesterday.

He stated that in this intensely competitive world India's goal should be to move closer towards
the strategic sweet spot. But having said that let me also caution that the world of all against all is
neither desirable, nor indeed probable. For a nation like India, this would be in addition to the
changes induced by its climb up the global power hierarchy. As a broad approach it'll be
reflected in the primacy of long term thinking over short term calculations. It would encourage
undertaking deep structural change and ambitious socio-economic initiatives that can transform
both habits and attitudes.

Moreover he said that in this world what were presumed to be intractable challenges will have to
be addressed, not ducked. An example to point is that of the recent change in the Indian state of
Jammu and Kashmir. For many years India sought a solution while Pakistan was comfortable
with continuing cross-border terrorism. The choice as this government came back to power was
clear. Either we have more of past policies and the prospect of further radicalization or we have a
decisive change in the landscape and a change of direction towards de-radicalization. The
legislative changes made this summer put India and the entire region on the road to long-term
peace. That is the reality today in the making and this is the India that will navigate the world
which I have described just now. The different era, which we have entered, also calls for both
India and the United States to press the refresh button on their relationship. The really important
relationships in the world are the less transactional ones. They are driven by global assessments
and are based on strengthening each other. Recent events in our ties confirm that the deep
convergences developed over the last two decades are now in full play. I am confident that a
strategic appreciation of the emerging global landscape would only bring us closer.

After his speech, Dr. John Hamre asked about his opinion towards the losing vitality of the
international institutions like the World Bank, the IMF and the UN in reply to that EAM added
that what we have seen is that many institutions have come under stress because either, as you
say, they've lost legitimacy, vitality and efficiency. If significant countries don't get their
substantial interests sorted out there, they start looking elsewhere.

Further Hamre asked about the view of Jaishankar at the situation in Afghanistan answering to
this EAM added that we have made much more consultations. In fact, even on this trip I met
ambassador Khalilzad in New York. Part of my discussion with secretary Pompeo yesterday was
devoted to Afghanistan. And we consult with other countries as well. We consulted with the
Russians, we consulted with the Chinese, so for us the challenge in Afghanistan is this- we see
the American dilemma and the American dilemma is of an 18 years troop commitment and a
debate whether this situation is going to improve radically in the coming years.

Answering to the questions from Hamre and the Audience on recent development in J&K and
about the regional co-operation for managing the ecology Jaishankar said the objective of the
government as things settle down obviously to encourage investment, government investment
but also private investment and private investment has not really been that strong historically in
Kashmir for reasons that we all know. But yes, I think it's very much the ecological fragility of
that particular landscape would be very much in people's minds and I would say this is a
government which gives a lot of attention to those factors. I mean if you look at both its
environmental sensitivity as well as its climate change awareness, those have been very much
sharper with this particular government.

At last Hamre concluded the discussion by saying that it was very unusual to have a foreign
minister that can operate at the strategic level, the operational level, tactical level, you do that
with mastery. It's really been a splendid discussion.
Q.4 PM’s Address to UNGA on 27th September 2019

It was occasion of 74th Session of United Nation in New York where PM Modi started his speech
by saying “It is a great honour for me to address the 74th Session of the United Nations on behalf
of 1.3 billion Indians. It is a very special occasion, also, because this year, the entire world is
celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi”. He stated that this year in the
world’s biggest democracy, the highest ever number of voters voted my government into power
for a second term with an even stronger mandate than before. Further he stated that how India is
giving a new path and an inspirational message to the world by stating some of the achievements
attained by his government. He highlighted that India has successfully implemented the world’s
biggest sanitation campaign within the Clean India Mission by building over 110 million toilets
in just 5 years for its countrymen. Talking about ‘Ayushman Bharat Mission’ he stated that India
successfully runs the world’s biggest health assurance scheme by giving 500 million people the
facility of an annual health cover of 500,000 Rs for free treatment.

He later in his speech talked about the goals which India aims to achieve in next five years he
said in the next 5 years, apart from promoting water conservation, we are going to ensure water
supply to 150 million homes. We are also going to build over 125,000 kilometers of new roads.
By the year 2022, we plan to build 20 million houses for the poor. He also proclaimed that India
is working towards eradicating it by 2025 which the world aims by 2030.

Talking about Global Warming he stated that India’s contribution to Global Warming is very low
and India is one of the leading nations when it comes to taking steps to address this issue. He
said on one hand we are working towards achieving the target of 450 Giga Watts of renewable
energy, and on the other hand, we have also taken the initiative to create the International Solar
Alliance. He also stated that India has initiated the formation of the “Coalition for Disaster
Resilient Infrastructure” CDRI for building infrastructure which can withstand with these
increasing natural disasters as one of the major effects of Global Warming.

He also stated that India stands for peace and is the land of largest number of supreme sacrifices
made by soldiers of any country for UN Peace keeping missions. He also focused on bringing the
world together against the social evils like terrorism and other social problems. At last he
concluded his speech by giving the message from the world’s largest democracy for the
International community is: “Harmony and Peace”.