India defense diplomacy: According to a study presented on Friday at the beginning of the Shangri-La Dialogue, India has expanded its focus on issue-based alliances, engagement, and regional defense diplomacy.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London released research stating that the country’s growing defense role and collaborations will probably further contribute to the increasingly competitive nature of India-China relations.
It is already the case that if China-Indian relations worsen, the region may become much more divided between the two regional giants, with defense ties becoming even more exclusive.
According to the Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment (APRSA) study, receiving the position of preferred security partner entails risks and challenges in addition to rewards particular to the defense of the recipient region.
The report also stated that India will decide to become more and more rooted in the Asia-Pacific region.
The research expounded on the nation’s perspective that considers joint military drills with neighbours as a valuable instrument for enhancing collaboration, increasing their comfort level with New Delhi, and concurrently challenging China’s regional stance.
India thus carries out a variety of joint military drills.
These take the form of bilateral exercises involving the air force, army, and navy, as well as tri-service and an additional type of maritime cooperation exercises that are carried out concurrently with Indian Navy port visits to foreign nations.
Taiwan tracks 38 Chinese military aircraft, 11 ships around nation
Furthermore, the Indian military is taking part in trilateral, bilateral, and multilateral drills with militaries in the Asia-Pacific region more and more.
According to the paper, the Indian military held 75 joint military drills with partner nations in 2023. 55 bilateral, 16 multilateral, and 4 multilateral exercises were included in this.
The aforementioned pattern persisted in the yearly rise of 45 exercises carried out in 2022, 39 in 2021, 29 in 2019, and 40 in 2018.
According to the Hindu business line, the country has worked to create new formats and expand the number of partner countries for exercises as part of its efforts to significantly expand its regional influence. India conducted its first naval drills in the Asia-Pacific in 2023, involving the Royal Thai Navy, as well as the first maritime partnerships between India, Australia, France the United Arab Emirates and ASEAN member states.
The increasing frequency of India’s joint exercises and presence in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean show that the Indian Navy places a high priority on fostering defense ties in these areas.
India’s military did drills with many countries in 2023, such as the US, Vietnam, Australia, and the Maldives. This shows how involved India is in the military life of many countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The report says that New Delhi sees all of these countries as important regional defense partners. The military drills that followed made working with these countries even easier.
The Indian Navy also uses port calls to show that it is there, which is sometimes an added benefit of military drills and sometimes not.
The Indian Navy made 51 port calls in 2023, up from 39 in 2022, 24 in 2021, and 25 in 2019. These calls were similar to the drills.
Most of the country’s port calls in 2023 were in littoral countries and islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans. This shows that New Delhi is trying to show how powerful it is.
India has become more open-minded about its policies toward Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, which has led to more of what were once seen as “sensitive” military activities, like visits by submarines.
The first Indian submarine deployment to Australia took place in August 2023. This came after the first Indian submarine visit to Indonesia in February 2023.
The story also said that, as part of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX), an Indian submarine went to Singapore in September 2023.
As a result of China’s increasing involvement in the Indian Ocean, India has also stepped up maritime cooperation with both Australia and France, conducting joint patrols with them as well. These have included the first naval exercises between India and the Royal Thai Navy, as well as naval assets from ASEAN and EU member states and the first maritime partnership exercises between India and Australia and India and France and UAE.
Ukraine’s Air Defense Triumph: 7 Missiles and 32 Drones Neutralized
The Indian Navy’s frequent joint drills and presence in these regions demonstrate how important it is for the nation to strengthen defense ties in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.
India’s growing defense links and role in the Asia-Pacific region have bigger effects on the safety of the area. Australia, Japan, the US, and countries in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia are all getting more involved with India and China on a bilateral and mini-lateral level. This shows that the two countries are becoming more divided in the area.
India’s foreign policy and security will continue to be focused on the US and its friends and partners. As tensions between the US and China rise, the relationship between the US and India is likely to make India and China even more competitive with each other.
India’s biggest security worry right now is China’s growing military involvement with its neighbours, according to the study.
