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India and the NATO - made for each other?
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- The story: The European countries have slowly started to play a larger role in the Indo-Pacific region. India knows that no single power can produce stability and security in the Indo-Pacific, and many will strive to do that in coming years.
- The China angle: China’s meteoric rise has heightened India’s need for closer security relationships with politically reliable, like-minded states. In order to tackle this geopolitical challenge, India will have to undertake more deliberate efforts to counter-balance the juggernaut of Chinese power. In that light, extending NATO’s membership to India may seem like a good option.
- The good and the bad:
- The good - During the Cold War (1948-1991), India’s refusal to join any of the Military bloc (NATO or Warsaw pact led by the USSR) was premised on its non-alignment. That argument had little justification once the Cold War ended during 1989-91. Since then, NATO has built partnerships with many neutral and non-aligned The Article 5 of the NATO treaty held that an attack against a member nation of the NATO would be considered to be an attack against all the members of the alliance and would call for joint military action against the aggressor. This would create deterrence for China and Pakistan to attack India. An India-NATO dialogue would simply mean having regular contact with a military alliance, most of whose members are well-established partners of India. India has military exchanges with many members of NATO — including the US, Britain, and France — in bilateral and multilateral formats. So in the longer term, India would derive military-strategic benefits from a partnership with the world’s most powerful alliance. Egypt and Israel are both NATO partners who maintain defense relationships with Russia. Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Austria are all NATO partners with long-standing neutralist traditions.
- The bad - NATO members have conflicting opinions on how to share the military burden and strike the right balance between NATO and the EU’s quest for an independent military role. They also disagree on policy related to Russia, the Middle East, and China. By becoming a NATO member, India’s long-standing and strong ties with Russia will likely get frayed. Russia has shown displeasure on account of India’s growing strategic convergence with the US. This could further strengthen the already deepening relation between China and Russia. Considering that India still is heavily dependent on the Russian military equipment, joining NATO seems like an eminently bad idea. Another issue would be the establishment of NATO bases on India’s territory which might invite widespread protests in the country and may even be considered an infringement of our sovereignty. A potential downside of joining NATO is that India would get dragged into various conflicts around the globe. This will result in a lot of Indian soldiers dying in various conflicts in which we have no reason at all to be involved in.
- Summary: The bureaucratization of the engagement between India and western countries has prevented India from taking full advantage of re-emerging geopolitics of the Atlantic. However, India’s recent proactive approach has certainly sought to end this prolonged political neglect. A pragmatic engagement with NATO countries must be an important part of India’s foreign policy but it must refrain from becoming a formal member of NATO.
- Knowledge centre:
- NATO - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 30 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4 April 1949. In accordance with the Treaty, the fundamental role of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. NATO is playing an increasingly important role in crisis management and peacekeeping. NATO has an open door policy with regard to enlargement. Any European country in a position to further the principles of the Washington Treaty and contribute to security in the Euro-Atlantic area can become a member of the Alliance at the invitation of the North Atlantic Council.
- Warsaw Pact - The Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, (May 14, 1955–July 1, 1991) was a treaty establishing a mutual-defense organization (Warsaw Treaty Organization) composed originally of the Soviet Union and Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. (Albania withdrew in 1968, and East Germany did so in 1990.) It provided for a unified military command and for the maintenance of Soviet military units on the territories of the other participating states. During the Cold War most of western Europe was aligned with the United States through membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while the Soviet Union maintained garrisons in its satellites under the terms of the Warsaw Pact. The immediate occasion for the Warsaw Pact was the Paris agreement among the Western powers admitting West Germany to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After the democratic revolutions of 1989 in eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact became moribund and was formally declared “nonexistent” on July 1, 1991.
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