In multi-alignment, every friend counts
Even as Quad gains ascendance, PM Modi should use the UN to reach out to smaller states and address their sensitivities
During times of global fluidity, it is customary to look at realigning diplomatic equations. Several Indian thinkers advocate this. Some desire “strategic autonomy”. Others call for “nonalignment 2.0”. There is talk of “multialignment”. Conceptually, all this makes sense. It is appealing too. Despite differences, there is a common quest to realign in the light of changing dynamics. Precepts are also being put into practice. From the Pacific to the Caribbean, India has established institutional linkages. Ties with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) and the Gulf States have strengthened.
However, the in-person Quad summit when President Joe Biden hosts Prime Ministers (PMs) Narendra Modi, Scott Morrison and Yoshihide Suga on September 24 in Washington DC is exciting foreign policy aficionados in India more than any other plurilateral initiative since the inaugural Summit of the G20 in Washington DC in 2008. Then, it was the financial crisis of 2007-08 that catalysed the formation of a new grouping. Now, it is the inability of existing multilateral forums to act in concert, and address new and emerging challenges that has led to this new grouping that includes India.
Until a few years ago, it was not considered proper even to have informal meetings of Quad at the ambassadorial level in any multilateral setting. It was a time when regular Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (Brics) meetings — from summit to ambassadorial level — were the norm. It was also a time when the established multilateral order was flailing, and Indian diplomats were already working with everyone and aligning interests with different coalitions. Yet, Quad was a forbidden area.
It was a time when even the common interests of permanent members of the Security Council could not stop India from disrupting the hoary practice of permanent members having their judges elected to the “world court”, International Court of Justice (ICJ). It was multi-alignment in practice. Those incipient efforts at building a coalition of the willing at the United Nations (UN) in 2017 with small and middle States are not heard of much, for they were not part of a grand strategy. They were born out of necessity, not choice. But they brought about an unprecedented change.
It is not well-known that the efforts benefitted from a bold move by the government, at the behest of PM Modi, to engage with every one of the UN members at least once at a ministerial level from 2015 to 2016. This was not done for purposes of the ICJ election — that was a later decision made in mid-2017. It was a more extensive outreach to those who perceived that India was “neglecting” them, without even a ministerial visit for years.
That seems a long time ago. This month, we had an online Brics summit, which did not attract much attention. Then a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, which our external affairs minister (EAM) attended in-person, and the PM addressed virtually. There is now the Quad summit, which both the PM and EAM will attend in-person. Signals of multi-alignment are more vivid. India is the only common factor in these three plurilateral summits. The level of India’s engagement with each of them is, in a way, reflective of New Delhi’s priorities.
Quad is a complex arrangement that doesn’t fit any conventional framework. Four diverse democracies and market economies, concerned that available platforms are unable to meet the challenges to their interests in the Indo-Pacific region, have coalesced to promote a forward-looking agenda for delivering global public good; from maritime security to humanitarian assistance, from pandemic vaccines to climate action, from cyberspace to emerging technologies and much more. While the challenges that Quad is gearing up for have gathered pace, it is the assertive rise of China in the Indo-Pacific that has led to Quad’s rapid ascendency in India’s priorities. It may also ensure that Quad will not meander in the future like the Brics now does.
Given the investment in time and effort, Quad will get off to a good start. It will come in for adverse comments from China. All this is on expected lines. However, even while working intensely with the big players and opening up new terms of engagement with middle powers, India needs to remain sensitive to the concerns of smaller States. This coalescence of the big and the cleavages among the great will worry many who can’t be classified either as big or great that their interests are being “neglected”.
The PM’s visit to the UN is germane in this context. The last time he visited New York in 2019, he held several plurilateral meetings with groups of small States. The pandemic will not provide such opportunities now. Perhaps, the UN speech on September 25 can be the format for reaching out to them. We can also take a leaf out of the Chinese playbook. For three decades, every year, the Chinese foreign minister begins with a trip to Africa. It may be time to set some sustainable traditions of our own too. It may also be time to reach out regularly at the UN at political levels to those who look to India, but we tend not to look towards, as often as required for an aspirational power to do. In the practice of diplomatic multi-alignment, every friend counts.
Syed Akbaruddin is a former diplomat. His new book, India vs UK, narrates the story of Indian diplomats stitching together an unprecedented coalition of states to chart a historic election victory at the UN. The views expressed are personal