Third YB Chavan Memorial Lecture - India’s Foreign Policy – Future Challenges

IDSA in collaboration with Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, Mumbai hosted the third Y B Chavan Memorial Lecture, the founding President and guiding light for the Institute in its formative years, on 30 November 2012. Ambassador Kanwal Sibal delivered the lecture on “India’s Foreign Policy – Future Challenges.” The Institute was privileged on the occasion by the presence of Ambassador Leela K Ponappa as chairperson, Shri RD Pradhan and Shri Ajit Nimbalkar from the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan.

Brief Overview

Shri Y B Chavan was born in the state of Maharashtra on March 12, 1913. He spent many years in jail as a freedom fighter and played a major role in the Quit India movement in 1942. Following India’s independence, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in 1946 and rose to become Chief Minister of the bi-lingual State of Bombay. In 1960, he became the first Chief Minister of the newly created state of Maharashtra. He was requested by the then Prime Minister Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru to become the Defence Minister in 1962. Subsequently, he held the offices of Union Home Minister from 1966 to 1970, Union Finance Minister from 1970 and Foreign Minister from 1974 to 1977. He was also the Chairman of the 8th Finance Commission. The Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan has given a corpus to the IDSA to hold an annual eminent persons’ lecture series In memory of Shri Y B Chavan.

Welcome Address by Dr. Arvind Gupta

Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General, IDSA, acknowledged the support of the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan in organising the event. He spoke about late Shri K Subrahmanyam’s admiration for Shri Y B Chavan and about the pivotal role played by the two in establishing and then mentoring IDSA through its formative years. He brought out the role played by Shri Y B Chavan by quoting Shri Subrahmanyam “if IDSA was not nursed at that time by late Shri Y B Chavan, it would have been killed at the infancy itself.” Dr Gupta also noted that 2012 marks the birth centenary of Y B Chavan and hence it is an important year in the calendar of the IDSA.

Remarks by Shri Ajit Nimbalkar

Shri Ajit Nimbalkar elaborated on the tremendous contribution of late Shri Y B Chavan to the nation in general and Maharashtra in particular while serving in various capacities both at the centre and in the state. Shri Nimbalkar expressed hope that the annual event organized by the IDSA will draw more attention at the national level and that it would be a fitting tribute to the memory of a towering figure like Y B Chavan.

Third Y B Chavan Memorial Lecture: Ambassador Kanwal Sibal

Ambassador Sibal said that identification of the problems and challenges will help India in a prescriptive analysis for the future. While giving a comprehensive account of the near and distant future challenges facing the country, he said that the biggest challenge before India was to maintain coherence and balance in its foreign policy. Shri Sibal said that national interest is a fluid concept and defining it is not easy. However, a clear and sharp understanding of our national interests is in many ways important to the formulation of a sound foreign policy and addressing various challenges facing the nation at the international level. Foreign policy challenges, according to him, largely remain the same over a period of time and India is no exception in this regard. Therefore, he concluded by saying that the future foreign policy challenges for India will remain the same albeit in a different form; protection of our independence and sovereignty, friendship with all and enmity with none and a peaceful environment in which we can economically grow and meet our internal challenges.

Click the link to see the full text of his talk.

Click link for audio of the talk

Discussion Points

The talk evinced a lot of interest and the question and answer session generated a host of points. Some salient aspects brought out are as follows: -

• India’s Neighborhood Challenges: India faces a tough neighborhood. Though, we wish for a cooperative and trouble free neighborhood, experience worldwide suggests that none of the big powers, be it USA or China or erstwhile USSR has had a trouble-free neighborhood; this situation is not unique to India alone. A matter of concern is that India’s smaller neighbours bring in external actors to balance the Indian influence.
• China: It was argued that a more democratic and globally integrated China will be easier to deal with and a guarantee for peace in the region. The US under Clinton also worked on this thesis, but to no avail. China is deeply integrated into the global economic system, but if the unfolding events of the recent past are any indication, its aggressive foreign policy posturing is not likely to change.
• Sino-US bonhomie: Though the US looks at India as a lynchpin and a major power in the region, it also sees China as an important ally in promoting peace and stability in South Asia. This double view of the US has to be taken into cognition by Indian policy-makers.
• G-2: The prospect of G-2 is questionable; there are many intertwined issues that raise questions about its existence and future possibility. Both Europe and Russia don’t look at it favourably. Its existence would also not be in India’s favour.
• Out of Area Contingency (OOAC): OOAC Operations are going to pose serious questions both within the country and outside. Given the fact that India is a rising power and OOAC is mandated by the RM’s directive, India is bound to play an important role beyond its defined boundaries. Although the international community is looking towards India to shoulder more global responsibility, the civilian leadership is yet to take a call on deploying the armed forces in certain out of area contingency operations. Moreover, there is a lack of synergy between the civilian and military leadership. Unlike the US and other democracies where the military is deeply integrated into the political decision making, the military component is largely missing from India’s decision making process. This phenomenon puts serious question marks over our ability to undertake missions far from our borders.
• Iran: India is trying to maintain an independent position despite US pressures. While maintaining our stated independent position, we are trying to persuade and convince the US that maintaining closer ties with Iran is critical to India, given our dependence on that country to meet our vital energy needs.
• Tibet: Tawang is important for India as a signal to China that Arunachal Pradesh is an inseparable and integral part of India and is not subject to bargain. India should not compromise on this issue, as any dilution in its position will compromise its national security.
• Ministry of External Affairs: The fact that the MEA is understaffed and overstretched is not new. However, if we look at the problem in a holistic fashion the problem does not seem to be as acute as it is commonly portrayed. A host of other ministries viz. the ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, the Environment ministry, Commerce ministry, the Ministry of Defence deal with our diplomatic efforts in their respective fields. This does in a way reduce the burden of the MEA. However, since the MEA is the nodal agency in foreign affairs and the complexity of issues faced and emerging are growing an increase in manpower is essential.

Observations by Ambassador Leela Ponappa

Shri Y B Chavan integrated both internal and external agenda, which is the benchmark of a successful foreign policy. The need of the hour is to rebalance our domestic and foreign policy goals. There is a limit to what a country can achieve internationally on its own and this is true for India also. For example, India can achieve very little vis-à-vis Central Asian republics as it is limited due to the geographical constraints. So we can aspire only for certain things in a given situation.

Vote of Thanks

Commander Sarabjeet Parmar thanked Ambassador Kanwal Sibal for his invaluable observations on this important subject. He extended his thanks to Shri Ajit Nimbalkar for being present on the occasion and sharing his experience about Shri Y B Chavan and IDSA. He also thanked RD Pradhan for his support and encouragement for this event. Last but not the least, he thanked Ambassador Ponappa for sparing some time out of her busy schedule to chair the event and share her incisive remarks.

Report prepared by Amit Kumar, Research Assistant at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).