The “Modi-Mantra” in India’s Foreign Policy

By Rana Danish Nisar

Due to fluctuations in global politics, prominent Indian leaders, and foreign policy specialists, have always shaped the objectives of Indian foreign policy keeping in view the dynamics of national politics and interests and interaction with great powers.

nterestingly, the politics of great powers is a crucial factor behind the transformations in Indian foreign policy. In fact, Indians have been renovating their foreign policy according to the updated versions of regional and global politics. In order to ensure its presence in world affairs, cooperative engagement, along with the implantation of ‘Act East Policy’ and ‘Neighbourhood Policy’, is the main thrust of the present Indian leadership. The Modi Doctrine has taken revolutionary steps to bring India alive on the diplomatic front with some 35 tours and visits to 53 countries.

The main focus of the Modi doctrine is on the regions of South Asia and South-East Asia and interactions with major powers to make India a balancing factor in geopolitics and geostrategic domains.  Commonly, the Modi doctrine, known as ‘Modimantra’ in India’s strategic circles, updated India’s foreign policy objectives in the economic-political and strategic domains. Under the umbrella of this doctrine, Modi has transformed New Delhi’s new approach to regional and global affairs. Following his notion of “1st India” Modi has promoted his agenda in order to get the role of a major global political player especially from the countries of the Gulf region, e.g. KSA, UAE, Iran and Israel. Modi visited these countries soon after getting the PM function.

A strong economy can be considered as the backbone of any country, and foreign direct investment is the major component. Under the shadow of ‘Modi-Mantra’, India’s ‘Make in India (MII)’ and ‘Digital India (DI)’ policies are the main pillars to boost the country’s economy and attract foreigners to make investments in India.

Military innovations along with revision of India’s nuclear guideline set give strength to India’s global interface especially in the field of defence chains

Besides stretching Nehru’s notion of NAM, the Modi-Mantra transforms NAM into multi-alignments aimed at achieving the nation’s national interests. Basically, the journey of signing partnership in the context of strategic perspectives was inaugurated in the eras of Atal and Manmohan, soon after the South Asian nuclearisation crises, but Modi pursues these strategic relationships with new strength and energy and currently, India has been engaged almost with 30 countries across the globe.

Given its position in the Indian Ocean, and the transformation of the Look East Policy (LEP) into the Act East Policy (AEP), India’s naval doctrines are now aimed at dominating the Indo-Pacific in a broad sense. India is promoting its naval ties with advanced military countries, especially Japan, the US and Australia, because they are the powers that control the Indo-Pacific.  Obsessed with naval dominance, the ‘Bay of Bengal’, ‘Andaman’ and ‘Nicobar’ atolls are considered by India as its natural aircraft carriers and give strength to India’s fixation on regional maritime hegemony. Moreover, the Indian Navy’s upgrade, in the strategic calculation of making India active in the Oceania power politics of the SA region, also includes the presence of the Indian nuclear submarine “Arihant”, with its 4 sea-based ballistic missiles along with 12 petite-array missiles. Moreover, as early as 2017, the head of India’s naval force, Admiral S. Lanba, showed his willingness to build more nuclear-oriented submarines in order to increase naval ties with neighbouring countries under the Modi doctrine. India’s nuclear preparedness is part of its aspiration for regional nuclear hegemony, Modi seems obsessed with increasing the nation’s nuclear capabilities and has signed civil-nuclear agreements with thirteen countries around the world.

Along with all its aspirations and capabilities, India needs the US to change global policies.  After the demise of the Soviet bloc, India had only the option of the US and on the other hand the US, which wants to assert its powerful presence based on supremacy in the world, needs strong allies and secure partners. The logic behind the formation of a wider chain of allies and partners in the world is to gain strength and support from its allies to push the crucial role of the US in the global system.

The US wants to ensure the security of its interests in the world and in order to preserve its primacy in global affairs.  India’s prominent role in the South Asian region has convinced Pentagon think tanks to build strong ties with India, which is seen as a power capable of ensuring the balance of power in the Pacific region.

On the other hand, following Kautilya’s strategic guidance, Modi’s doctrine gives more strength to the notion of balancing to gain powerful potential support from the US. India’s long dream of standing with the great powers and joining the club of the world’s major political players is realised through this partnership. An important work titled “How India sees the world: From Kautilya to the 21st century” has argued that India’s quest for a seat in the UNSC, with the dream of joining the NSG club, is a reflection of Indian strategic thinking which is totally based on the wisdom of Kautilya. He further stated that India will be able to get a seat in the NSG only with the support of the US. Moreover, another book, titled ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India’, states that Modi only wants primacy from South Asia and then to the neighbouring border region and due to his paradoxical nature, Modi does not want interference of any extra-regional power in South Asian affairs. Moreover, the book highlights India’s ‘wish’ lists towards the US under the India-US strategic partnership, which includes support to India  on the Kashmir, open access to US markets, support against Pakistan.

At present, for Modi the main concern seems to be the axis of the two best friends of all time ‘China-Pakistan’, with their friendship blossoming by leaps and bounds. Modi sees it as a potential threat and is pushing India towards America to get its support.

The BRI and CPEC project with Pakistan and the growing China-Pakistan strategic partnership are perceived by Modi as a threat not only within South Asia but also beyond, and in order to take countermeasures, India is trying to build cooperative policies under the policies of “AEP” and “ANP” to expand Indian hegemony beyond the borders of South Asia.

In fact, the objectives of India-US interactions in geo-strategic perspectives are to strengthen their position and counter the challenge posed by China.  The ongoing relationship is not only providing a safe haven to each other, but also enables the two nations to secure their national interests not only in regional but global perspectives. India’s Modi leadership wants to bridge the qualitative, quantitative and technological gap, and modernise the military infrastructure, using the US card. Reciprocally, India’s Modi leadership supports the US in all anti-Chinese actions.

The weakening of US primacy and the emergence of counterpowers really alter the unipolar structure and leadership of the US. Moreover, the abrupt change in the political landscape of Asia, the resurgence of Russia together with the rise of the People’s Republic of China, are considered by the US leadership as the main danger in Asian politics. In order to limit this danger Trump, and probably Biden will do the same, has pursued the goal of “making more” alliances in Asia, and in particular with Modi in South Asia. But this deep juxtaposition between Modi-Trump (and now perhaps Modi-Biden) and the mounting strategic ties between the two democracies has negative impacts on Pakistan’s security and could be the cause of accidental conflicts in South Asia.

Rana Danish Nisar  The author is a PhD (International Relations) Student at the School of Politics and International Studies (SPIS). He holds Mphil in (International Relations), Masters in (Pakistan Studies), and Masters in (International Relations) degrees. He won acceptance Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations HPAIR (USA), 2017.  His research interests are broadly in South Asian Affairs, South Asia Geo-Politics, India-Pakistan Relations, South Asian Nuclear Politics, US and South Asia, Indian Ocean, Security studies, South Asian developments studies.  

(The views expressed in this article belong  only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy or views of World Geostrategic Insights). 

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