Table of Contents FOCUS : India’s Foreign Policy: Continuity & Transformation Editor’s Note .................................................................................................................................... 2 India-Japan Relations under Modi and Abe: Prospects and Challenges for a Novel Bilateral Asian Dynamic................... Monika Chansoria 3 India US Ties at a Time of Global Fluidity.............................................................. Harsh V Pant 10 Russia: A Key Pillar of India’s Foreign Policy ................................................. Meena Singh Roy 14 India Unveils Maritime Diplomacy in the Indian Ocean Region ..................... Narender Kumar 20 India’s China Policy: Dynamics of ‘Change’ and ‘Continuity’ ........................ Shikha Aggarwal 28 India’s ‘Engage West’ Policy: A Bold Initiative................................................. Ashok Sajjanhar 35 India and Multilateral Institutions........................................................... Asoke Kumar Mukerji 43 India and the European Union: An Almost Strategic Partnership ............................ Praket Arya 51 Re-imagining India’s Afghanistan-Pakistan Policy ............................................... Zulfiqar Shah 58 REPORTS NLIU-India Foundation Constitutional Law Symposium........................................ Iravati Singh 62 2nd ASEAN-India Youth Summit ........................................................................ Shristi Pukhrem 67 BOOK REVIEW Paramjit Sahai’s “Indian Cultural Diplomacy: Celebrating Pluralism in a Globalised World ................................................................. Shreya C 78 India Foundation Journal, May-June 2019 {1} EDITOR NOTE India India's Foreign Policy : A Success Story Foundation Dear Readers, With the completion of five years of the BJP led NDA government Journal under the Prime Ministership of Shri Narendra Modi, there is a justifiable sense of achievement in many fields. The economy continues to grow at a steady pace, with India being the fastest growing economy in the world. Inflation has been contained between 3 to 5 percent, the security environment has shown a discernible improvement, introduction of the Vol. VII Goods and Services Tax (GST), India’s biggest indirect tax reform has Issue No.3 been implemented and after the initial teething troubles, has evolved significantly with high tax compliance and generation of revenue. But perhaps the most credible achievement of the government in the last five May-June 2019 years has been in the field of foreign policy, where India is now being viewed with a far greater degree of respect and admiration than hitherto fore. What has caused this change? A distinct impact has been made by the Prime Minister himself in his outreach to various world leaders. In Editor addition, the outreach by the External Affairs Minister as also by other ministers in the government has ensured that every single country has Maj Gen (Dr) Dhruv C Katoch been visited at least once in the last five years. The period has witnessed a blossoming of relations with the US and other world powers as also in the Indian Ocean Region. The policy changes also encompassed special Assistant Editors focus being laid on enhancing ties within India’s neighbourhood as also Srihari Avuthu with ASEAN and West Asia. The stress laid on the diaspora and in Shreya Challagalla propagating India’s soft power has had visible and beneficial results and India is today viewed with a far greater degree of positivity than ever before. Today, any Indian, anywhere in the world, knows that his government will take care of him, whatever may be the circumstances. This has been seen in the manner Indian nationals have been evacuated Publisher from conflict zones, or from areas hit by calamities. It is seen in the India Foundation sensitivity shown in addressing the problems of the citizens, wherever New Delhi they may be, by personal communication to the External Affairs Minister, who, in her own words, is just one tweet away. Rightly, all Indians can be proud of this achievement. E-mail [email protected] But foreign policy can never be conducted in a vacuum and remains a dynamic and continuous process. This issue gives an insight into certain Website www.indiafoundation.in aspects of India’s foreign policy and highlights the challenges which still lie ahead. We are set for more interesting times, with the formation of a new government by the end of May. It is but hoped that the next five years will see a further blossoming of the achievements that have been made in the last five years. for private circulation only {2}{2} India Foundation Journal, May-June 2019 FOCUS India-Japan Relations under Modi and Abe: Prospects and Challenges for a Novel Bilateral Asian Dynamic Monika Chansoria* he decades of 2000, and 2010, stand strategic realities have become far more pertinent witness to the warm embrace between for India and Japan, given the rising centrality of TJapan and India – a distance long travelled the Indo-Pacific region to regional security and since the time when during the mid-1960s, South stability. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has Asia including India, were omitted from what discernibly hailed the Japan-India relationship as Japan considered as ‘Asia’. This embrace having “… the largest potential for development seemingly is a mirror to the regional and global for any bilateral relationship anywhere in the geopolitics and geo-strategy at play, which have world.” been impacted with the strategic shifts in policy thinking and approaches occurring within Asia. Decrypting the Personality Factor in In the ceaseless pursuit of securing national Foreign Policy Thinking and interests set in the backdrop of the struggle for Formulation power amongst nation-states, the upbeat phase in The personality traits of a decision maker and Indo-Japanese relations is a tangible outcome the extent to which they impact upon his foreign stemming from commonalities of culture, shared policy choices, can be assessed from what political interests and complementing ideologies that have scientist James Barber once remarked, “Every critically shaped the course of this bilateral story of decision making is really two stories: an relationship. The India-Japan Strategic and Global outer one, in which a rational man calculates and, Partnership has been elevated to the new Tokyo an inner one, in which an emotional man feels. Declaration for India-Japan Special Strategic and The two are forever connected”.1 Foreign policy Global Partnership, only providing more reason decision-making is an outcome of how individual to evaluate the various determinants in foreign political leaders bestowed with power perceive and policy-making. Perhaps among these, it is analyse events and how their motivations hold a individuals and personalities who could end up bearing upon the conclusions they ultimately arrive being most profound in terms of outcomes. upon. It is often found that culture, geography, Displaying a higher degree of convergence in the history, ideology, and self-conceptions shape the political, economic, and strategic realm, the thought process of a decision maker, forming, what *Dr. Monika Chansoria is a Tokyo-based Senior Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) since 2017. Previously, she has held appointments at the Sandia National Laboratories (U.S.), the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris) and at Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Japan). Dr. Chansoria has authored five books including her latest title, 'China, Japan, and Senkaku Islands: Conflict in the East China Sea Amid an American Shadow' (Routledge © 2018).) India Foundation Journal, May-June 2019 {3} often is referred to as the psycho-socio milieu of The commonality of aiming towards economic decision-making.2 development and growth that gets coupled with Differing political environments surrounding greater national strength and nationalism can be leaders give rise to variable boundaries to operate gauged from Abe’s idea and policy of “Japan is as a natural consequence. In this reference, leaders back” and Modi’s idea of “Shreshtha Bharat” of democracies ideally reflect the attitudes and (Superior India). The systemic conditions have core principles of their citizens. The broader study presented a favourable platform for this duo to of foreign policy always refers back to bring to light, “… the dawn of a new era in India- understanding the significance of policy Japan relations”. Moreover, as PM Modi stated implementation as the key emphasis, and the on an occasion, “…[The] India-Japan partnership concurrent effect of personalities on decision- has been fundamentally transformed and has been making, which at times is difficult to quantify. The strengthened as a ‘special strategic and global interpersonal generalisation theory suggests that partnership’… There are no negatives but only behavioural differences in interpersonal situations opportunities in this relationship which are waiting have some correlation to behavioural differences to be seized.” Providing further credence to this in international situations.3 Contemporary security thought, Modi underlined the significance of India studies remain well positioned to absorb and and Japan being liberal democracies, which analyse the effects of a state’s foreign and security provides them with a solid foundation to converge policy and the underlying rationales behind it. It at various levels on the Asian stage. With