Gulshan Dietl replies: The Geneva II was a UN-backed conference for ending the civil war in Syria by bringing the Syrian Government and the opposition together. It was held on January 22, 2014 in Montreux followed by the one in Geneva on January 22-23.

India responded to the international appeal for humanitarian assistance by supplying essential food items, pledging $2 million to the United Nations Syrian Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (UN-SHARP) and offered technical expertise as also $1 million to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for the destruction of chemical stockpiles and related facilities in Syria. On the broader political issues, India refrained from taking sides in the Syrian civil war. Thus, it abstained on a UN Security Council resolution that condemned the Syrian regime’s violent crackdown on the protesters as the resolution did not condemn similar violence by the opposition. It also abstained on the UN General Assembly resolution that called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. It voted for a UN Security Council resolution only after the issues of regime change, military intervention and sanctions were deleted from the text.

India was invited to the Geneva II along with roughly forty other countries. Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid led the Indian delegation. He expressed concern that the situation in Syria had sharply intensified the sectarian fault-lines across the region and that all shades of religious extremism had infiltrated into Syria from all over the world. He reiterated India’s stand that there can be no military solution to the conflict and no society can be re-ordered from outside. He extended support for an all-inclusive Syrian-led peace process and offered to assist in the implementation of the Geneva II resolutions.

Posted on March 28, 2014

Abhijit Singh replies: The opening of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), though significant for international trade, does not benefit India directly as the passage does not offer a shorter route for any cargo or energy consignment bound for Indian shores. The NSR is essentially a passage linking Europe with East Asia. While the increasing duration of its navigability – it was open for shipping for nearly six months last year, up from four months in previous years - benefits other Asian countries like China, Japan and South Korea because of their relatively larger volume of trade with the US and Europe, Indian trading and commercial interest are minimally affected.

A permanently navigable NSR may, however, set the tone for a gradual recalibration of the international focus that the Indian Ocean presently enjoys as a 'trade highway'. Currently, the trade flow through the NSR is a miniscule percentage of global trade. But as use of the passage grows, it might result in a gradual shift in trade patterns with a relative decline in traffic being routed through the Indian Ocean. Speculative as the scenario may appear, if it ever does come to pass, India’s existing strategic clout and geo-political leverage in the Indian Ocean could be adversely impacted.

Posted on March 07, 2014

Reply: Please refer to following publication/reports

Uttam Kumar Sinha, “Climate Change Narratives: Reading the Arctic”, IDSA Monograph Series No 25, 2013;

Arvind Gupta, “India's Gains from Arctic Council”, The New Indian Express, July 31, 2013;

Sarabjeet Singh Parmar, “The Arctic: Potential for Conflict amidst Cooperation”, Debate, Strategic Analysis, Routledge, 37 (4), July 2013;

Olav Schram Stokke, “The Promise of Involvement: Asia in the Arctic”, Debate, Strategic Analysis, 37 (4), July 2013;

Ashlid Kolas, “Indigenous Rights, Sovereignty and Resource Governance in the Arctic”, Debate, Strategic Analysis, 37 (4), July 2013;

Uttam Kumar Sinha, “The Arctic: An Antithesis”, Strategic Analysis, 37 (1), January 2013;

Inaugural Address by Dr Arvind Gupta, Director General, IDSA at IDSA-PRIO Workshop on Global Governance and Resource Use: The Case of the Arctic, November 19, 2012;

Report of IDSA-PRIO Workshop on Global Governance and Resource Use: The Case of the Arctic, November 19, 2012;

Arvind Gupta, “Importance of Arctic Region”, The New Indian Express, June 28, 2012; and

P.K. Gautam, “The Arctic as a Global Common”, IDSA Issue Brief, September 02, 2011.

Video Presentation
Brief Presentation on Arctic by Uttam Kumar Sinha, September 09, 2013

Also, refer to an earlier reply by Uttam Kumar Sinha posted in this section, at http://idsa.in/askanexpert/WhatcanIndiadotosecureitsinterestsinArctic

Posted on March 03, 2014