India’s strategic autonomy expansion needs foreign policy reorientation: Experts

The authors said that India faces an existential threat from climate change. They suggest that while working towards a supportive global regime on climate change, India needs to reorient growth strategies to prioritise sustainability by leveraging advanced technologies

A discussion document by an independent group of leading policymakers, analysts and thinkers have said that India must maintain an outward orientation of its economy and avoid being pushed to the margins of the regional and global economy in order to enhance its growth prospects and improve people’s welfare.

Former NSA Shivshankar Menon was among the leading policymakers who have penned the document named India’s Path to Power (HT Photo)

They believe that there is an unmistakable trend towards multipolarity in Asia and the world, and it is in India’s interest to reinforce this trend. The document says that the expansion of India’s strategic autonomy demands a re-orientation of its foreign policy towards mobilising the larger constituency of developing countries and emerging economies with which it has convergent interests and advance them through reinforcing multilateral institutions and processes.

The full-version of the document, written by leading policymakers like Yamini Aiyar, Sunil Khilnani, Prakash Menon, Shivshankar Menon, Nitin Pai, Srinath Raghavan, Ajit Ranade and Shyam Saran, is called ‘India’s Path to Power: Strategy in a World Adrift’ and is set to be released on October 2.

“The authors of the document believe that the current period of rapid geopolitical change and economic transformation carries risks, but also creates spaces for emerging countries like India to expand its strategic autonomy. However, to leverage opportunities and mitigate risks, critical decisions must be taken now to ensure that the coming decade sets the stage for India’s emergence as a front-ranking power in Asia and beyond. The recommendations in this document are directed towards this objective. Strategic autonomy, openness and inclusive economic growth are the key guiding principles,” their statement read.

They recommended that India should further strengthen its partnership with the United States, Japan and Europe as they share India’s security concerns and are the key source of capital, trade and technology, which will enhance India’s development prospects.

The authors said that India faces an existential threat from climate change. They suggest that while working towards a supportive global regime on climate change, India needs to reorient growth strategies to prioritise sustainability by leveraging advanced technologies.

To overcome the challenges faced in cyberspace, they said India must draw on the talent within and outside the government to urgently develop offensive cyber capabilities.

While acknowledging the China challenge, the authors believe that India is the only country with comparable area, population, history, manpower, and scientific and technological capabilities to not only match but to surpass China as a parallel state.

On the increasing threat posed by collusion between China and Pakistan, they said, there was a need for a politically guided strategic approach that identifies, prioritises and develops pertinent forms of power, which are housed in structures that promote centralised planning and decentralised execution.