PSIR QUESTION... 31. How India can and why India must shape Asia's future political order

Today's question....How India can and why India must shape Asia's future political order?

Points --

1. Give the importance of Asia
2. Explain why India must shape Asia’s future political order
3. Tell how India can shape Asia’s future political order
4. Conclusion 

Answer -

●Give the importance of Asia As one of the world’s oldest continuing civilisations, India has always been enriched by its interaction with other cultures and civilisations around it. As India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru told the delegates to the 1947 Asian Relations Conference in Delhi, India is “so situated to be the meeting point of western and northern and eastern and southeast Asia. Streams of culture have flowed from India to distant parts of Asia". If the idea of a culturally interconnected Asia animated the Indian national movement, the hopes of constructing an “Asian Federation” emerged as an aspiration on the international stage.

According to C Raja Mohan, the fact is that the scale, scope and intensity of its connectivity with Asia varied over the millennia. There have been periods of expansive engagement with its neighbouring regions, interspersed by centuries of isolationism. Nehru’s own stewardship of independent India saw Delhi intensely embrace Asia only to turn its back on it soon after. Today, integrating with Asia has once again become a major theme of India’s economic and foreign policies

●Explain why India must shape Asia’s future political order Asian nations are now more economically connected than ever before. They are striving to deepen regional integration through trade liberalisation agreements at the sub-regional, trans-regional and international levels. In the middle of the 20th century, regionalism ran into opposition in Asia from those emphasising ‘economic sovereignty.’ Today Asian nations have the luxury of dealing with competing trade pacts. The region today is no longer a mere theatre for European colonial powers. It is the motor of global growth and has agency in shaping the world’s financial and political order. If the reviled Vasco da Gama moment has ended in Asia, the region is also facing sharp internal divisions. The rapid rise of China relative to the other powers in Asia has raised big questions about the future strategic order in Asia. China has overtaken Japan to become the second largest economy in the world and is poised to surpass the US in the near future. The widespread hopes for Beijing’s peaceful rise have evaporated amidst the sharpening maritime territorial conflicts between China and its neighbours.

As Asia enters a period of great churning, the question of India’s role in the region has become an important one. India’s Look East policy came in the wake of its economic reforms initiated at the turn of the 1990s was not surprising. Reconnecting to Asia, Delhi recognised, was critical for the modernisation of the Indian economy that had fallen behind the rest of the region and to rejuvenate its foreign policy in the new era. Since then, India has made considerable advances in connecting with Asia. It is now part of the major regional institutions, has growing economic and trade links and has stepped up its security cooperation with most Asian nations. Yet, there is a widespread sense of disappointment in Asia with India’s recent record in the East. Asia’s regional dynamic—in economic, political and strategic domains— has moved much faster than Delhi's readiness to adapt.

●Tell how India can shape Asia’s future political order In words of C Raja Mohan, Asia today hopes that the ‘Act East’ policy unveiled by the government of Narendra Modi will bridge the gap between India’s promise and performance. To meet the regional expectations for leadership, India will need to accelerate its internal economic reforms, deepen its integration with its South Asian neighbours, seize the opportunities for strengthening physical connectivity with different parts of Asia, play a more active role in the regional institutions and intensify its defence diplomacy.

Harsh Pant talks about greater cooperation with likeminded countries in the region and beyond will give it greater space to emerge as a credible regional interlocutor at a time when Washington’s policies remain far from clear and Beijing is challenging the foundations of the extant order.

●Conclude on following lines Delhi cannot afford to miss the unprecedented opportunity to accelerate Asia’s march towards prosperity or disavow the historic responsibility to shape its future political order. Recently held Raisina Dialogue upheld India’s activism where in words of Foreign Secretary, a lot of our diplomacy over the years has been dedicated to making economic revival of Asia possible. Our commitment to that approach remains firm. Today, as India’s capabilities and influence grow, they are naturally on offer to this longstanding endeavour.