Raisina Dialogue: India Unleashing Soft Power

In a sharp departure from the decade long UPA regime where India narrowed its identity by a self-imposed isolationism, Modi government realized India’s inevitable engagement with the Asian realm. NDA regime exuded enthusiasm to engage with the World. To provide momentum to the raising economic stature of India and to explore the opportunities and challenges for the region, India has unveiled its first ever massive flagship conference on ‘geopolitics’ and ‘geoeconomics’, the Raisina Dialogue. Indian conclave is believed to be organized on similar lines as Shangri-La Dialogue conducted by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), a UK based think-tank and funded by Singaporean government. The conference derives its name from Raisina Hills, an elevated region on which lies India’s Presidential Palace Rashtrapati Bhavan and the seat of Central government. The inaugural session of the three-day long conference from March 1^st through March 3^rd was launched by the Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and attended by political luminaries of South Asia. This global conclave was jointly organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) hosting over 100 distinguished speakers from over 35 countries. This conclave was aimed at catalyzing debates that shape progress of India & Asia and aims to work towards Asian integration and Asia’s integration with the World.

At the inaugural session of Raisina Dialogue, Sushma Swaraj reiterated India’s renewed interest in promoting connectivity –physical, economic and strategic in a bid to enhance its economic efficiency. She underscored India’s efforts in sustaining the momentum of cooperation in South Asia through SAARC and informed about India’s efforts in building sub-regional connectivity initiatives like BBIN, (Bangladesh Bhutan India and Nepal). She emphasized on the urgent need to contain the menace of burgeoning terrorism and was critical of its impact on the economic development. Hamid Karzai, former President of Afghanistan and Chandrika Kumaratunga during their address made a scathing remarks on Pakistan’s interventionist approach of blocking India’s access to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia and prevailing trust deficit between India and Pakistan preventing integration and growth of South Asia respectively.  Admiral Harris Harry of US has pitched for a quadrilateral security dialogue between India-Japan-Australia and US. Bangladesh’s former foreign secretary termed that South Asia region is least connected and anticipated for more regional and sub-regional cooperation. Former Seychelles President James Mancham stressed on the greater need for working together in Asia for development of the people.

Asia, the largest continent on the planet, is far-flung, dynamically active and extremely diverse. It is home to some of the oldest civilizations too. While the concept of Asian integration and India’s attempts to integrate with it are not novel, the trajectory of Indian engagement with the Asia have witnessed several highs and lows. Eventually the new found enthusiasm to integrate and enhance its engagement with Asia and the World beyond led to launch of Raisina Dialogue. The idea of Pan-Asianism was first propounded by Japan which propagated and nurtured this concept to foster its imperialist interests. Later to consolidate its authority over the new territories it reinforced the paradigm ‘Asia for Asians’ and resented the European Colonialism. But towards the mid-20^th century, the anti-colonial protests of the Asian countries brought them together and they reconnected well culminating in upsurge of the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM). The solidarity among the Asian nations under the banner of NAM was further strengthened at the Asian Relations Conference in 1947 and Afro-Asian Conference at Bandung 1955. Jawaharlal Nehru, nurtured the idea of Asian Federation. But the harmony of the Asian countries was soon lacerated by inter and intra state disputes and aggravated by Cold war geopolitics. In the meanwhile, embracing the tested western mechanisms, Asia’s economic tigers sculpted a new frontier of economic progression, soon emulated by China and India. China by the virtue of three decade long financial reforms has emerged as a new financial power toppling Japan as the second largest economy. India too slowly climbed the economic trajectory. Incidentally the chronology of changes occurring in India and China are believed to have a greater impact on Asia because of their sheer numbers. These countries are rallied as the emerging nations of Asia and are projected to play greater role in building and integration of Asia.

These resurgent Asian nations emerged as forerunners by carving a special conglomeration, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) for rejuvenated regional and economic integration. For enhanced political engagement new platforms propped up, these include ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), East Asia Summit (EAS) and Conference on Interaction and Confidence building in Asia (CICA). Along similar lines, India developed a sterling example of regional cooperation in South-Asian region by instituting South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).  

Aside the regional cooperation, Asian countries soon realized the imminent need for deepening economic cooperation whereby ASEAN is now promoting Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) with India, China, Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. Similarly some ASEAN countries and others with US consolidated trade agreement Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Flourishing Chinese economy has grossly impacted the geopolitical and geo-economic architecture of Asia.  With aggressive leadership at Beijing ambitiously pursuing One Belt One Road (OBOR) and Maritime Silk Route (MSR) in pursuit of new markets for its superfluous production and to expand its foot print, the infrastructure connectivity of Asia is now witnessing a sea-change. Besides these China is actively pursuing other initiatives like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) connectivity project and China-Mongolia-Russia Corridor. To fund its humongous infrastructure building spree, to challenge the Western hegemony and to signal the emergence of new super power, China began establishing new financial institutions like Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), New Development Bank with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa) nations. Now it is contemplating a Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific. Intriguingly, the growth motors instead of cultivating solidarity among nations in Asia began to spark conflict and power rivalry. The steady rise of China is now marred by shifting of balance of power from the West to Asia. Now within Asia, undeterred aggressive maritime aspirations of China in South China Sea, East China Sea have worsened maritime territorial disputes between China and its immediate neighbors and sharpened the Sino-Japanese rivalry. Now China began endorsing its hegemony over Asia and started expounding the theme of Asia for Asians. Small nations wary of China are now running to US for support.

During the course of history, India’s connectivity with Asia and the World beyond ranged from the best to worst. Under the colonial rule, India has turned into a global supplier of raw material and finished goods to various countries across the globe. The unimpeded movement of men and material was facilitated by a robust infrastructure connectivity which included roads, rail and ports. Matters worsened for the Indian sub-continent after partition when both Indian economy and connectivity suffered. The situation was exacerbated by border conflicts with Pakistan and China which ended up in wars. By late 1980’s India was reduced to a subsistence economy, the grievous state of economy was resurrected by financial reforms of 1991. While the financial status showed a marked recovery during the past two decades, India is now keen on expanding financial and trade connectivity. To bring prosperity to country through meaningful engagement with various global players Indian leadership has unveiled Raisina Dialogue to address the domestic problems through foreign policy. To this end, Indian priorities are improving connectivity and boosting economic efficiency. Modi government laid special emphasis on regional connectivity and strengthening of engagement with immediate neighborhood. Modi significantly infused a new hope and enthusiasm in SAARC, created in 1985 and thriving to realize its full potential. India has also created an economic confederation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). But unfortunately India’s ambitions of expanding physical connectivity with SAARC region are stalled by the impervious approach of Pakistan. To surmount this tumbling block India is now pushing BIMSTEC to further its trade interests in the Bay of Bengal region. China is miles ahead in terms of its efforts and initiatives in integrating with Asia. It assiduously attempted to further its interests through Shangri-La Dialogue, initiated in 2002. While it remained as a mild affair in the beginning, the platform started to gain momentum with heads of states addressing the conclave and military chiefs of the countries meeting along its sidelines. It acted like track one inter-governmental security forum for 28 Asia-Pacific countries. This soon turned into a perfect platform for military diplomacy. Shangri-La Dialogue is functionally similar to Munich Security Conference (1963). It is soon acclaimed as the Davos of International Security. In 2009, a similar programme Halifax International Security Fund was conceived which has 40 member states. Since 2007 China has been sending its top brass for the annual meet of Shangri-La and has been unabashedly engaging with member countries in bilateral/security dialogue

Despite being part of various global conclave, Indian growth story failed to enthuse global stake holders due to absence of a global platform that can project India’s interests and global aspirations. The genesis of this global conclave is a culmination of shared objectives of Indian political leadership, intellectuals and the executive to project the unique Indian dimension to the World.  The initiative stemmed from India’s desire to shape global conversations, veneer new trajectories and trudge ahead to carve a dynamic world by engaging the like-minded stake holders.  The theme of the inaugural session is Connecting Asia with an integral emphasis on physical, economic, digital and strategic connectivity. 21^st century is dubbed Asian century and to cherish this dream an effective engagement between various countries of the World with Asia and of Asia with World is essential. Unlike Europe wherein institutionalized mechanisms ensure cogent integration facilitate its working as strong functional entity, Asia is enormously diverse continent necessitating the need for integration. This conclave attempts to foster India’s connectivity with the region, Asian continent and with the World as such. By all means, through Raisina Dialogue, India made a humble beginning to reassert its position as dynamic power.

 

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