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Meta-Geopolitics of India and China by Vithiyapathy Purushothaman, Research Officer, C3S

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Meta-Geopolitics of India and China by Vithiyapathy Purushothaman, Research Officer, C3S Meta-geopolitics of India and China By Vithiyapathy Purushothaman, Research Officer, C3S Introduction China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow, during three successive stages in 1979-1999, helped it to elevate the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The methods of reformations and initiatives by the Chinese government in these periods adopted new broader FDI policies in various fields. China stabilised its GDP growth and utilised its natural resources to modernise its region. Its political diplomacy and soft loans won the hearts and minds of many nations from Asia to Africa. This power projection gifted China with a leveraged sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The industrialisation and foreign policy initiatives of China focused its economy and boosted its GDP graph. This resulted in the higher influence of geopolitics in various fields. While India propounded its ‘Look East policy’ China focussed on the West and concentrated on foreign investments all around Asia. Beijing then further extended its focus to the African continent. Major Chinese initiatives such as ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) helped it establish stronger meta-geopolitics in Asia and beyond. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi sought to change the phase of India’s geopolitical strategy by inviting SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) leaders to his swearing-in ceremony on 26 May 2014. The process initiated to address Chinese meta-geopolitics in the South Asian region marked the first move of his game in of grand chess played across the Asian landscape. India’s 15th Prime Minister Narendra Modi is carrying forward the seven key dimensions of meta-geopolitics to counter the game of checks and balances in the geopolitical map of Asia. Modi’s timely major initiatives such as ‘Make in India’i to draw more FDI to the nation, ‘Digital India’,ii ‘MoUD Smart Cities’,iii ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana’iv and ‘Mudra Bank’v addressed dimensions of economics, science and human capital. ‘Swachh Bharat’,vi ‘Clean Ganga’vii and ‘Green India’viii highlight environmental, social and health dimensions. India’s Project Mausaumix to strengthen current ties between the countries across the ocean though was a slow starter. Chabahar port connectivity on the other hand can be seen as a part of India’s balancing act to counter China’s meta-geopolitical moves in the Central Asian region. Modi’s foreign policy thrust and economic cooperation agenda has effectively impacted Chinese foot prints in the region over the past two and half years. Furthermore, by promoting defence exports via ‘Make in India’,x an attempt has been made to balance against Chinese defence exports in the region. These initiatives will have a strong impact on exporting arms and ammunition at a low price and in assured quality over the coming decades. As a result, small nations are inclined towards defence imports from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s power 1 projection is taking its shape to challenge Chinese diplomacy and economic activities in Asia. In two and half years of Modi’s era, many checks and balances have been conceived to counter Chinese activity in Asia and IOR. The success of these measures can only be gauged in the coming years. This paper will address these issues against the backdrop of China’s meta-geopolitical moves in the international arena. Furthermore, it will aim to analyse the changing meta-geopolitical strategies under Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping. This paper will seek to answer the following questions. What is India and China’s role in Asia, why it is necessary to classify Foreign Policy activities of India and China using Meta-geopolitics? What are the foreign policy activities that take place in the region? How do two and half years of India’s foreign policy team counter the Chinese foreign policy activity in the region? How do India and China move their Foreign Ministers in the Grand Asian Chess Board? What is the present need of Asia? How does the power play of two leading powers in Asia change the landscape of Asia? What are the changes that are expected in the Asian Landscape by India and China cooperating? How can India and China together shape the landscape of Asia? Meta-geopolitics In the concept of foreign policy analysis the Great Game, New Great Game and Geopolitics are employed to analyse the activities of the country. Yet the foreign policy of a nation deserves in- depth analysis with several classifications. It is here that we use the term ‘Meta-geopolitics’ which was coined by Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan, that is viewed as a combination of traditional and new dimensions of geopolitics that presents the multi-dimensional view of power relations between the states. It is a high-breed analysis to understand foreign policy using hard and soft power tools that the state could employ or its power projection. The framework is viewed as a combination of Neo-realism and Constructivist theories. Meta-geopolitics has seven key dimensions which help to classify state power such as economics, environment, social and health issues, science and human potential, domestic politics, international diplomacy, military and security issues. Thus it coordinates the interest-based traditional geopolitical power dynamics and value-based identity diffusion of neo-realism and constructivism respectively. By taking meta-geopolitics as a brand new binocular we could view the foreign policy activities of India and China in the Asian landscape. 2 India’s Foreign Policy Team On 26 May 2014, the Modi government formed a new foreign policy team and the game of grand chess has begun on the Asian Grand Chess Board. Covering the length and breadth of areas of interest, the foreign policy team actively travels to establish its diplomatic relationships in the region. The activities of India foreign policy team was acknowledged worldwide as one of the most efficient foreign policy initiatives in recent times. Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieved strong and efficient leads in international diplomacy as well as military and security issues in geopolitics with the help of his effective foreign policy team. This team is comprised of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh, Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Mr Ajit Doval. In image 1 we see the power parity of the Indian foreign policy team in comparison with Chess board powers. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval can be assigned as ‘Knight’, Foreign Secretary Subrahmaniyam Jaishankar as ‘Rook’, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for External Affairs as the ‘two bishops’ of the king. Last but not the least, the most active Prime Minister of the largest democracy as a king but this king will not move in just single steps for his visits are like a whirlpool where he always marks a series of visits in a single journey. Image 1: Power Parity of India’s Foreign Policy Team Source: The image was designed by the author. 3 As image 2 shows when the world is surrounded by ‘Made in China’ product, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes around the world to invite industries to ‘Make in India’. Image 2: Make in Indiaxi His efforts in welcoming the international companies to ‘Make in India’ are expected to give long term dividends. He seeks attention from leading industrialists around the world and creates a strong acknowledgement for making India a better place to produce goods. The Make in India initiative itself is grabbing a lot of attention and turning the Asian economy to focus towards the Indian subcontinentxii. His foreign visits across Asia are extremely remarkable and are creating the largest space for the cooperation and agreement with respect to the importance on the basis of the speciality of the respective country. The details of such visits are tabulated in table1. Table 1: List of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi’s Foreign Visits till November 2016xiii S.No Country Date Purpose 1 Bhutan 16-17, June 2014 State Visit 2 Brazil 13-16, July 2014 BRICS Summit 3 Nepal 03-04 August 2014 State Visit 4 Japan 30 August 2014 State Visit 03 September 2014 State Visit 5 United States 26-30 September 2014 State Visit and General debate of the United Nations 6 Seychelles 10-11 March 2015 State Visit 7 Mauritius 11-13 March 2015 State Visit 4 8 Sri Lanka 13-14 March 2015 State Visit 9 Singapore 23 March 2015 State Funeral of Lee Kuan Yew 10 France 09-12 April 2015 State Visit 11 Germany 12-14 April 2015 State Visit 12 Canada 14-16 April 2015 State Visit 13 China 14-16 May 2015 State Visit 14 Mongolia 16-17 May 2015 State Visit 15 South Korea 18-19 May 2015 State Visit 16 Bangladesh 06-07 June 2015 State Visit 17 Uzbekistan 06 July 2015 State Visit 18 Kazakhstan 07 July 2015 State Visit 19 Russia 08-10 July 2015 BRICS Summit 20 Turkmenistan 10-11 July 2015 State Visit 21 Kyrgyzstan 12 July 2015 State Visit 22 Tajikistan 12-13 July 2015 State Visit 23 United Arab 16-17 August 2015 State Visit Emirates 24 Ireland 23 September 2015 State Visit 25 United States 24-30 September 2015 United Nations General assembly and official visit to Silicon valley 26 United Kingdom 12-14 November 2015 State Visit 27 Turkey 15-16 November 2015 G-20 28 Malaysia 21-22 November 2015 ASEAN-India Summit and East Asia Summit (EAS) 29 Singapore 23-25 November 2015 State Visit 30 France 30 November- 01 2015 United Nations Climate Change December 2015 Conference 31 Russia 23-24 December 2015 State
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