THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. INDIA-AUSTRALIA INTERIM TRADE AGREEMENT AND FTA

THE CONTEXT: India and Australia have announced that they are set to conclude an interim trade agreement in March 2022 and a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) 12-18 months thereafter.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the early harvest agreement likely to cover?

• An interim or early harvest trade agreement is used to liberalise tariffs on the trade of certain goods between two countries or trading blocs before a comprehensive FTA (Free Trade Agreement) is concluded.
• According to the Commerce Ministry, the interim agreement set to be announced in about 30 days will cover “most areas of interest for both countries” including goods, services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and customs procedures.
• Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at about $12.5 billion in FY21 and has already surpassed $17.7 billion in the first 10 months of FY22.
• India has imported merchandise worth about $12.1 billion from Australia in the first 10 months of the fiscal and has exported merchandise worth $5.6 billion in the same period. Key imports from Australia include coal, gold and LNG while key exports to the country from India include diesel, petrol and gems and jewellery.

How has the Quad impacted trade relations between India and Australia?

India and Australia are both members of the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) along with the US and Japan. Both countries have noted that the coalition has given impetus to increasing trade relations between all members of the Quad. Australia noted that it already had FTAs with both the US and Japan and that all four countries could start building a framework for economic cooperation within the countries of the Quad after they announced a deal with India.

What other Free Trade Agreements is India currently negotiating?

India is currently in the process of negotiating FTAs with the UAE, the UK, Canada, the EU and Israel, besides Australia. India is also looking to complete an early harvest agreement with the UAE and the UK in the first half of 2022.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

2. THE INFLATION EDGES PAST 6% IN JANUARY 2022

THE CONTEXT: Retail inflation rose to a seven-month high of 6.01 per cent in January 2022, breaching the upper tolerance level of the medium-term inflation target of 4+/-2 per cent set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The rise was mainly on account of high food inflation, which jumped to a 14-month high of 5.43 per cent, along with an unfavourable base.

THE EXPLANATION:

• • Inflation at the wholesale level in January softened to 96 per cent from 13.56 per cent in December 2021 but marked the tenth consecutive month of being in double digits, another set of data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Wholesale food inflation was, however, at a 24-month high of 9.6 per cent. Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation rate is reflective of the price pressures on the inputs side and of manufacturers passing on the higher input costs to their output prices.
  • According to Economists, the high inflation was now turning structural, with price rise being seen in non-food segments such as clothing, fuel and light, household goods, health, transport, and communication above 6 per cent.

 

• These prices are based on the MRP principle and will not come down once increased. Manufacturers are in the process of passing on the higher input cost to the consumer and this will carry on for the next two months too.
• The structural aspect of inflation is reflected in the core inflation remaining sticky (96 per cent in January). “Clothing & footwear inflation now stands at a 97-month high (8.84 per cent) on the back of higher cotton prices. Household goods and services inflation at 7.1 per cent is at a 94-month high in January 2022. Amid elevated input costs, various automobile, telecom and FMCG firms have announced price hikes. As a result, core inflation has remained sticky.

VALUE ADDITION:

About Wholesale Price Index (WPI):

• Measures inflation at the first stage of the transaction, i.e. wholesale prices.
• Compiled by the Office of Economic Advisor, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• The Wholesale Price Index measures inflation on a year-on-year basis.
• It consists of 3 major groups as below:

QUICK FACTS

GLOSSARY

• Disinflation: Reduction in the rate of inflation.
• Deflation: Persistent decrease in the price level (negative inflation).
• Reflation: Price level increases when the economy recovers from recession based on the value of inflation.
• Creeping inflation – If the rate of inflation is low (up to 3%).
• Walking/Trotting inflation – Rate of inflation is moderate (3-7%).
• Running/Galloping inflation – Rate of inflation is high (>10%).
• Runaway/Hyper Inflation – The rate of inflation is extreme.
• Stagflation: Inflation + Recession (Unemployment).
• Misery index: Rate of inflation + Rate of unemployment.
• Inflationary gap: Aggregate demand > Aggregate supply (at full employment level).
• Deflationary gap: Aggregate supply > Aggregate demand (at full employment level).
• Suppressed / Repressed inflation: Aggregate demand > Aggregate supply. Here govt will not allow rising of prices.
• Open inflation: A situation where the price level rises without any price control measures by the government.
• Core inflation: Based on those items whose prices are non-volatile. (All items in CPI -Food & Energy).
• Headline inflation: All commodities are covered in this. (Goods + Services).
• Structural inflation: Due to structural problems like infrastructural bottlenecks.

3. CENTRE CUTS AGRI-CESS ON CRUDE PALM OIL

THE CONTEXT: According to the the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution the Centre Government has reduced the Agri-cess on crude palm oil (CPO) from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent. This will benefit the domestic edible oil refiners and also check prices of cooking oils.

BEHIND THE MOVE?

 “With a view to provide further relief to consumers and to keep in check any further rise in the prices of domestic edible oils due to rise in the prices of edible oils globally, the Government of India has reduced the agri-cess for Crude Palm Oil (CPO) from 7.5% to 5% with effect from 12th February, 2022.”

“After reduction of the agri-cess, the import tax gap between CPO and Refined Palm Oil has increased to 8.25%. The increase in the gap between the CPO and Refined Palm Oil will benefit the domestic refining industry to import crude oil for refining”.

The rate of import duty on Refined Palm Oils at 12.5%, Refined Soyabean oil and Refined Sunflower Oil at 17.5% will remain in force up to 30th September 2022. This measure will help in cooling down the prices of edible oils which are witnessing an upward trend in the international market due to lower availability and other international factors”.

Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC)

• It was proposed in the 2021 Budget and it is applied on a small number of items.
• Under the norms, no additional burden will be placed on consumers on most items.
• AIDC was announced because there was an immediate need to improve the agricultural infrastructure in order to produce more along with conserving and processing agricultural output efficiently.
• This cess would also ensure enhanced remuneration for the farmers.

About National Edible Oil Mission-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP)

• The government will invest more than ₹11,000 crore via the National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm to provide farmers with everything possible.
• Under the scheme, the government will ensure that farmers get all facilities, from quality seeds to technology to promote farming to produce palm oil and other oil seeds.
• The Centre plans to raise the domestic production of palm oil by three times to 11 lakh MT by 2025-26.
• It will involve raising the area under oil palm cultivation to 10 lakh hectares by 2025-26 and 16.7 lakh hectares by 2029-30.
• Under the scheme, oil palm farmers will be provided financial assistance and will get remuneration under a price and viability formula.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

4. THE FIGHT AGAINST ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

THE CONTEXT: According to the paper titled Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators, “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis”, published by  the Lancet, found that AMR is a leading cause of death around the world, with the highest number of deaths occurring in low-resource settings.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of microorganisms to persist or grow in the presence of drugs designed to inhibit or kill them. These drugs, called antimicrobials, are used to treat infectious diseases caused by microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoan parasites.

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance occurs when changes in bacteria causes the drugs used to treat the infection to become less effective. A paper authored by Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators states that around 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial anti microbial resistance in 2019 alone.

Impact

When infections can no longer be treated by first-line antibiotics, more expensive medicines must be used. A longer duration of illness and treatment, often in hospitals, increases health care costs as well as the economic burden on families and societies.

Antibiotic resistance is putting the achievements of modern medicine at risk. Organ transplantation’s, chemotherapy and surgeries such as caesarean sections become much more dangerous without effective antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of infections.

 

Research on a massive scale

The paper is an analysis of the burden of AMR, producing estimates for 204 countries and territories, 23 bacterial pathogens, and 88 drug-pathogen combinations in 2019. The six leading pathogens for deaths associated with resistance included E. coli, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, S. pneumoniae, A. baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. They have been registered as priority pathogens by WHO.

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics, no proper sanitation and the lack of awareness among the public about the dangers of AMR are some of the reasons which need to be tackled in order to fight against antimicrobial resistance.

The way forward

• Reducing exposure to antibiotics that are used in the farming sector and poultry industry is also key. In this context, doctors point out that India’s move to ban colistin usage in the poultry industry will go a long way in reducing the AMR burden in the country.
• Antibiotic stewardship, or minimising the use of antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, remains at the core of the fight against AMR.
• It is the hope of all collaborators, who continue to fight the big war with bacterial antimicrobial resistance, before, and through pandemics, that this new data provides the urgency and fresh momentum for global action to counter the single biggest burden that poses a major threat to human health.

5. ISRO’S FIRST LAUNCH OF 2022

THE CONTEXT: ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C52 successfully injected Earth Observation Satellite EOS-04, into an intended sun-synchronous polar orbit of 529 km altitude.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The INSPIREsat-1 is a student satellite from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in association with the University of Colorado, USA and is aimed at improving the understanding of ionosphere dynamics and the Sun’s coronal heating processes. The Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and the National Central University, Taiwan, were part of the development team of the INSPIREsat. Taiwanese is the first time collaborated with an international team to launch a satellite from India.
• The INS-2TD is a precursor to the India-Bhutan joint satellite [INS 2-B] and will assess land and water surface temperatures, delineation of crops and forest and thermal inertia.
• According to ISRO, with a mission life of 10 years, the EOS-4, a radar imaging satellite is designed to provide high quality images in all weather conditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry, plantation, flood mapping, soil moisture and hydrology. The satellite will collect earth observation data in C-band and will complement and supplement the data from Resourcesat, Cartosat series and RISAT-2B series.

THE SECURITY AFFAIRS

6. WHY DID THE GOVT BAN MORE CHINA-LINKED APPS?

THE CONTEXT:The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)  issued orders to ban 54 more apps, which either have originated in China or have some Chinese connection. These apps were banned for being a threat to national security.

THE EXPLANATION:

What are these new apps and why have they been banned?

As per the new list, video editing apps such as Viva Video Editor- Snack Video Maker with Music and Nice Video Baidu, which are used extensively for making short videos, games such as Onmyoji Chess and Conquer Online II have been banned in India. Garena Free Fire– Illuminate, a game, which had gained popularity among children, teenagers and youth in India after the ban on PUBG, has also been banned.

According to the Meity, the new apps have been banned using emergency powers under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act. Most of these apps, , were operating as clones or shadow apps of the apps that had earlier been banned by the government.

Which other apps have been banned by the government in the past?

• In June 2020, the IT ministry had, in a similar order issued under Section 69 of the IT Act, banned 59 apps, including TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, Likee, WeChat, and Bigo Live. In its reasoning then, the ministry had said that these apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.
• The first ban was followed by another set of 47 apps being barred from operations in India from July 2020. These apps were mostly proxies of the apps banned in June 2020.
• Later, on September 2, 2020, the IT ministry banned another 118 Chinese mobile apps, which included the popular gaming platform PUBG as well as Baidu, which is China’s largest search engine provider. In total so far, close to 300 apps and their proxies have been banned by the IT ministry.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES/INITIATIVES IN NEWS

7. THE NHA TO INTEGRATE DATABASES WITH PM-JAY

THE CONTEXT: According to the Union Health Ministry the National Health Authority (NHA) is working to integrate the database of Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 beneficiaries with the National Food Security Act (NFSA) portal so that beneficiaries can seek information regarding their entitlements under the AB PM-JAY using their ration card number.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The NHA is mandated with the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri–Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). The scheme provides health assurance of up to ₹5 Lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care-related hospitalizations.
• The Ministry added that the NHA is also working on a proposal to use Fair Price Shops or ration shops for providing information related to the scheme and entitlement under the scheme to eligible beneficiaries.
• “According to the Ministry, that this will provide an additional avenue to beneficiaries along with the existing Common Service Center, UTI-ITSL etc., for card creation. This will make the beneficiary identification process very convenient”.

Aadhar based

• It added that the existing beneficiary data available with various government welfare schemes can be meaningfully utilized only if a common identifier is available. “Aadhaar being a common identity across the majority of government databases will enable this integration.
• The beneficiary database enrichment under ABPM-JAY would mean adding additional parameters to the database for making searching easier. The majority of ABPM-JAY beneficiaries from SECC 2011 are also eligible for benefits under National Food Security Portal.

About National Health Authority (NHA)

• It is the apex body responsible for implementing India’s flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme called “Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana” & has been entrusted with the role of designing strategy, building technological infrastructure and implementation of “Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission” to create a National Digital Health Eco-system.
• NHA is leading the implementation for Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission ABDM in coordination with different ministries/departments of the Government of India, State Governments, and private sector/civil society organizations.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 15^TH FEBRUARY 2022

Q Consider the following statements about Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-04):

1. It is a geo-stationary satellite.
2. It has applications in the fields of disaster management, resource survey and agriculture.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a 1 only

b 2 only

c Both 1 and 2

d Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWER FOR 14^TH FEB 2022

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: It is the world’s largest nature conservation partnership. It consist of 120 BirdLife Partners worldwide.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: The term ‘biodiversity hotspot’ was coined by Norman Myers (1988). The Conservation International in association with Myers made the first systematic update of the hotspots.
• Statement 3 is correct: It identifies the sites known/referred to as ‘Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas’. It is the official Red List authority for birds, for the IUCN.

Note: According to Birdlife International, designation of IBAs is based on standardized criteria, namely (i) hold significant numbers of one or more globally threatened bird species, (ii) be one of a set of sites that together hold a suite of restricted-range species or biome-restricted species and (iii) have exceptionally large numbers of migratory or congregatory birds. The Bombay Natural History Society and Birdlife International have identified 467 IBAs in India. Forty percent of these IBAs fall outside the PA network.

1. Don’t Be in a Hurry READ MORE
2. Pandemic didn’t just affect our mental and physical health, but also changed our morals, trust issues READ MORE

1. How ‘Wilderness’ Was Invented Without Indigenous Peoples READ MORE
2. Climate change may reduce carbon dioxide uptake by forests: Study READ MORE
3. Climate and food price rise: Weather systems are so extreme that farmers have lost entire crop cycle READ MORE

1. Lazy lumps: 41% adults lead inactive lifestyles; at risk of disease READ MORE
2. Uniformity: The need is to promote secularism among the citizenry without State interference READ MORE

1. Incorrect diagnosis, wrong remedy: There are simpler solutions to the shortage of IAS officers at the Centre than the proposed amendments READ MORE
2. States of union: State of federalism needs a debate. Opposition CMs need to rise above party politics to start it READ MORE
3. The debate around pendency in the Supreme Court needs a dash of empiricism READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Successful launch of PSLV-C52 with EOS-04 Satellite READ MORE
2. NHA to integrate databases of welfare schemes to boost PM-JAY coverage READ MORE
3. Centre cuts agri-cess on crude palm oil READ MORE
4. India bans 54 Chinese apps that pose threat to the country. Details here READ MORE
5. Explained: India-Australia interim trade agreement and FTA READ MORE

Main Exam    

GS Paper- 1

1. Lazy lumps: 41% adults lead inactive lifestyles; at risk of disease READ MORE
2. Uniformity: The need is to promote secularism among the citizenry without State interference READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Incorrect diagnosis, wrong remedy: There are simpler solutions to the shortage of IAS officers at the Centre than the proposed amendments READ MORE
2. States of union: State of federalism needs a debate. Opposition CMs need to rise above party politics to start it READ MORE
3. The debate around pendency in the Supreme Court needs a dash of empiricism READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUE

1. Are India’s elite abandoning the country’s poor and vulnerable? READ MORE

 INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Explained | The never-ending problem of Tamil Nadu’s fishermen READ MORE  
2. The significance of the Indo-Pacific for India READ MORE
3. New Delhi truly embraces Quad READ MORE
4. Australia warms up to India: Rediscovers relations after falling out with China READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Correct design can ensure CBDCs don’t destabilise banks READ MORE
2. The Budget’s food subsidy conundrum READ MORE
3. Jobless Growth READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY  

1. How ‘Wilderness’ Was Invented Without Indigenous Peoples READ MORE
2. Climate change may reduce carbon dioxide uptake by forests: Study READ MORE
3. Climate and food price rise: Weather systems are so extreme that farmers have lost entire crop cycle READ MORE

SECURITY

1. Military modernisation lacks enough funds READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Don’t Be in a Hurry READ MORE
2. Pandemic didn’t just affect our mental and physical health, but also changed our morals, trust issues READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ‘Quad members may have similar concerns and share many core values, they do not have an identical world view.’ Comment.
2. Discuss the need for ease credit availability for the priority sector. Can changes in the co-lending model ease credit availability for the priority sector? Analyse your view.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
• More than illegal fishing, the method of fishing, as practised by the fishermen of Tamil Nadu, is the problem.
• Stronger partnerships can strengthen engagement with the Indo-Pacific region and enhance India’s reach and impact.
• There is great synergy between the US desire to “empower allies and partners as they take on regional leadership roles themselves” and India’s ambition to play a larger role in the Indo-Pacific.
• There is a concern on whether a central bank digital currency could destabilise the banking sector. This stems from the sector’s crucial role in financial intermediation.
• Australia could become a major partner, but India must not only revive economic growth and revitalise trade policies, but also ensure social peace.
• India has once again requested the world body for a comprehensive convention against terror as it doesn’t even have a common definition.
• A long-term strategy could be to link our education system to requirements of trade and industry, ensuring that a student coming out of the education system has requisite skills for the jobs on offer and there is no oversupply in any discipline.
• At a time when upper classes continue to thrive on waves of profit maximisation, the social and economic safety net of the poor has been gradually eroding.
• “Skill India” and “Make in India” can be excellent catalysts for employment generation but the outcome has been sub-optimal because the Government appears to care more for headline numbers, planning to achieve a $5 trillion economy by subsidising big business.

50-WORD TALK

• Election Commission’s rule of 48 hours silence, even for news media, before voting needs a realistic, modern upgrade. As PM Modi, CM Yogi have shown, politicians routinely find ways around it. In this era of social media and multi-phase polls, it’s un-enforceable. Technology and political smarts are one step ahead.
• The Quad threatens to become another forum for discussing everything — but doing nothing. The alliance may be engaged on vaccines, cybersecurity and climate change, but it’s dancing around confronting China’s bullying. It’s also divided on geopolitical issues like Myanmar and Ukraine. Till Washington shows clarity and leadership, this won’t change.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and also exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
• For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.

[WpProQuiz 160]

THE CONTEXT: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders will meet later this year. The organization will discuss the recommendations from a group of experts(NATO 2020 Reflection Process) that advocates extending a formal offer of partnership to India. Such an idea has been discussed before but has always sunk on India’s aversion to involvement in rival geopolitical blocs. Earlier this year, at the Munich Security Conference, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that the Western allies and close partners must forge stronger ties to counter the threat posed by China’s rise for transatlantic security. Stoltenberg underlined that in view of global challenges no country – and no continent – can go it alone.

WHAT IS NATO?

• Formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty, NATO is a security alliance of 30 countries from North America and Europe.
• NATO’s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means.
• NATO remains the principal security instrument of the transatlantic community and expression of its common democratic values.
• Article 4 of the treaty ensures consultations among Allies on security matters of common interest, which have expanded from a narrowly defined Soviet threat to the critical mission in Afghanistan, as well as peacekeeping in Kosovo and new threats to security, such as cyber attacks, and global threats such as terrorism and piracy that affect the Alliance and its global network of partners.
• Article 5 of the Washington Treaty — that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all — is at the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.
• It also conducts extensive training exercises and offers security support to partners around the globe, including the European Union in particular, but also the United Nations and the African Union.

PARTNERSHIP, NOT MEMBERSHIP

• NATO alliance has long discussed India’s membership, the latest being September 2011 invitation to be a partner in its ballistic missile defense (BMD) but India refrained from getting entangled in rival geopolitical blocs.
• At present, NATO is not offering membership to India; nor is Delhi interested. The motive is the question of exploring potential common ground.
• NATO’s “partner” concept is shorn of the Article 5 guarantee of collective defense against armed attack but provides defense dialogue, military-to-military planning, joint exercises, interoperability, and predictability.
• In the event of a conflict, India would benefit from having prior planning and arrangements in place for cooperating with NATO and its Mediterranean partners (including Israel, with which India has a close strategic relationship) to secure its western flank and the approaches to the Red Sea.
• To play any role in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and NATO need partners like India, Australia, and Japan. Delhi, in turn, knows that no single power can produce stability and security in the Indo-Pacific.
• NATO’s partnerships are highly customized arrangements. In India’s case, the sheer size and importance of the country may warrant a new and special category of partnership — one that combines periodic high-level dialogue, technological cooperation, and defense planning for maritime contingencies.
• An India-NATO dialogue would simply mean having regular contact with a military alliance, most of whose members are well-established partners of India.

THE GEOPOLITICAL CONVERGENCE

Since the end of the Cold War India and NATO have been on trajectories that will likely converge in the not-too-distant future. Scholars and strategists argue for India and NATO to come out of their respective shells and openly partner to deal with issues of common interest and concern.

China’s meteoric rise has dramatically heightened India’s need for closer security relationships with politically reliable, like-minded states. As China’s aggressive actions in the Galway Valley and other border areas demonstrate, Beijing is increasingly willing to depart from its peaceful rise strategy to directly challenge even the largest of its neighbours. This behavioral shift is likely to accelerate as China’s military capabilities expand. Already, China spends more on its military than all of its immediate neighbours combined, and nearly three times as much as India.

In these circumstances, India’s longstanding strategy of careful equidistance is not viable. Inevitably, New Delhi will have to undertake more deliberate efforts to counter-balance the Chinese power.  It has already begun to deepen bilateral defense ties with Japan, the United States (US), and other regional players threatened by China, including through the Quad. Becoming a NATO partner would be a natural extension of this evolution.

NATO also wants to expand its influence in the Indo-Pacific and Asia-Pacific regions. As a result, NATO is likely to regard India’s unique geographical location and its position in the so-called democratic camp as important. NATO may shift its resources toward the Indo-Pacific region to adapt to the changing world landscape.

FEASIBILITY OF PARTNERSHIP

In the past, some NATO allies have effectively blocked discussion of the matter by insisting that any offer of partnership to India be accompanied by similar invitations to Pakistan. This may have seemed attractive to some in the era when NATO militaries were mainly focused on conducting operations in Afghanistan. But with the winding down of operations there, NATO has little in common with a Pakistan that is increasingly radicalized at home and aligned with China.

By contrast, the case for NATO partnership with India — a large maritime democracy with concerns and interests that tend to overlap with those of the US and many European allies — has only grown more compelling as China’s rise has accelerated.

During the Cold War, India’s refusal 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 states. NATO has regular consultations with both Russia and China, despite the gathering tensions with them in recent years. Also, Delhi does military exercises with two countries with which it has serious security problems — China and Pakistan — under the SCO. India has military exchanges with many members of NATO — including the US, Britain, and France — in bilateral and multilateral formats. So a collective engagement with NATO must not be problematic.

Thus, India is opening up to the idea of collaborating with NATO states to meet its enhanced national security needs, both in its neighborhood and in distant regions. NATO meanwhile, sees this as an opportunity to share international responsibilities with an emerging global power on a note of mutual trust and cooperation.

India is emerging as a global power to be reckoned with and the country has started asserting its influence at various international forums in order to augment its national interests. Unlike in the Cold War era, today India stands tightly integrated into the international economy and global political system.

Meanwhile, NATO as a security alliance is currently undergoing a transformational change from within. It is now involved in an array of capacity-building measures in order to refashion itself to suit the necessities of the day, while also preserving its fundamental identity and values. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, this collective security institution has been unable to define a common threat for all of its member states – especially an enemy state/states. However, it is now foreseeing the rise of China as a prospective threat for the sustenance of the established world order. So, in order to counterbalance the rising influence of Beijing, NATO is gearing up with essential changes to its strategic doctrine.

India and NATO both uphold a shared set of values, like democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, human rights, and international law. Moreover, at a strategic front India has extended its neighborhood framework beyond the Indian subcontinent over the past decade. This has brought it closer to NATO, which has forayed eastwards from the Mediterranean with its “out-of-area” operations during the same time.

Hence, the fundamental commonalities and emerging synergies are bringing the two parties together, both at the political and military levels.

QUAD and NATO

Amid increasing recognition of the Asia-Pacific Region as the engine and center of future global development and growth, the first high-level virtual summit of the Quad was held recently. The Quad’s recent resurgence has been driven by uneasiness about the rise of China and the security threat it poses to the international order. Yet there is no direct reference to China, or even military security, in Quad’s first-ever joint statement. On the contrary, the most significant outcomes of the summit are related to COVID-19 vaccine production, facilitating cooperation over emerging technologies, and mitigating climate change.

Not an Asian NATO

Commentators often cast it as an “alliance” in the making, perhaps an “Asian NATO.” It is not. Rather, the Quad is designed as a loose-knit network of like-minded partners aiming at a broader purpose.

The threat posed by China is at one level military, as evidenced by its proactive pursuit of territorial claims in South Asia, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea. At another, it is economic and technological. It is this broader aspect of the global order that the Quad aims to address, as is clear from two of the joint statement’s specifics, which focus on the establishment of working groups on vaccine development and critical technologies. Both these efforts seek to constrain China’s central position in the global system, but also to develop a world order that is broad-based and inclusive.

The third working group being set up is on climate change, an area in which China is a cooperative player and not a competitor, and thus downplays the notion that the Quad is simply an instrument of containment. Together, the three initiatives are designed to create an environment that encourages China to be a positive player and persuades other states to shed their hesitancy toward the Quad. With these arrangements, the Quad has the bandwidth to focus on countering the challenging non-security frontiers of Beijing’s influence.

Military Dimension:

Though the summit focused on non-military initiatives, the Quad by no means downplays the military dimension. Its members have established the basis for regular defense cooperation through naval exercises, and the sharing of intelligence and military logistics. Adding further heft to previous bilateral efforts, the trilateral India-U.S.-Japan Malabar naval exercises expanded to include Australia last year. The four states have consolidated their military responses by building a set of nested strategic partnerships: linking their bilateral relationships with the India-Japan-U.S., India-Australia-Japan, and U.S.-Japan-Australia trilateral. The Quad is a logical extension of this network and has the potential to build a “Quad Plus” arrangement involving Canada, France, and perhaps New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Unique Selling Point:

Therein lays the Quad’s unique selling point: offering value to all states and banking on the network effect that underpins an emerging world order. The Quad is not so much a tight alliance as a core group that seeks to enlist the support and cooperation of other states in both military and non-military actions. The notion of a “Quad Plus” captures this well without focusing on membership. The elasticity of this framework incentivizes other states who may want to link to and unlink themselves from specific Quad initiatives as and when useful.

China’s View:

China, on the other hand, views “Quad” as a threat to its dominance in the region and says that the forum is an attempt by the US to create an Asian version of the NATO directly aimed at counterbalancing its interests. In fact, the US deputy secretary of state recently suggested that the informal defense alignment between the four nations could be the beginning of a Nato-style alliance in Asia.

But India remained committed to rules-based world order and respect for territorial integrity as well as sovereignty. And advancing the security and economic interests of all countries having legitimate and vital interests in the Indo-Pacific remained a key priority. During the recent visit of the Russian Foreign Minister to Delhi, both sides agreed that military alliances in Asia were inadvisable and counterproductive.

The Quad can set the framework for a global governance model in a post-pandemic world, but it is unlikely to become a NATO-like formal security alliance. Its evolution will be determined by its ability to mix global challenges in the interests of a wider range of countries.

BENEFITS OF PARTNERSHIP

In the near term, India would derive strategic-signaling value from even the appearance of drawing closer to the Western Alliance at a crucial, early phase of Beijing’s transition to a more aggressive posture. The signal will hold all the more value precisely because it has till now it has bordered on geopolitical taboo.

Strengthening ties with NATO now, while China is still in the early phase of a shift to a more assertive posture toward both South Asia and Europe, could pay dividends in dissuading aggression and ensuring that, should China continue on its current trajectory, India has as many friends as possible in the right places.

Longer-term, India would derive military-strategic benefits from a partnership with the world’s most powerful alliance. NATO partnerships come with regular defense dialogues, military-to-military planning, and joint exercises that improve readiness, interoperability, and predictability. In the event of a conflict, India would benefit from having prior planning and arrangements in place for cooperating with NATO and its Mediterranean partners (including Israel, with which India has a close strategic relationship) to secure its western flank and the approaches to the Red Sea. Partnering with NATO also carries technological benefits. Under a provision in the US 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, India now enjoys the same technology-sharing and cost-sharing perks as other non-NATO US allies for purposes of the Arms Export Control Act. But adding NATO partner status could also position India to benefit from possible future programs aimed at lowering the barriers for cooperation in emerging technologies between NATO and its Asia-Pacific partners

Europe: A pragmatic engagement with NATO must be an important part of India’s new European orientation, especially amidst the continent’s search for a new role in the Indo-Pacific. India’s real problem is difficulty in thinking strategically about Europe. The bureaucratization of the engagement between Delhi and Brussels and the lack of high-level political interest prevented India from taking full advantage of a re-emerging Europe. Talking to NATO ought to be one important part of India’s European strategy.

CHALLENGES

1. Non-alignment: Any suggestion that India should engage the NATO is usually presumed as a political taboo in foreign policy. India’s traditional stance of non-alignment is preventing it from translating the current uptick in the relationship with the US into any meaningful collaboration. The country’s political-military establishment has always held a skeptical attitude toward aligning with any military bloc or superpower under the notion of safeguarding national sovereignty.
2. Indo-Russian ties: India and Russia share a special and privileged strategic partnership. India is trying to balance Russia and the US. If India is to be included in a security system like NATO, which was founded to deal with the Soviet Union, India-Russia relations would suffer a decline. There has already been a backlash in Moscow over New Delhi’s strategic alignment with Washington in recent years. Russia has reservations about New Delhi joining the Indo-Pacific initiative and Quad. Russia has tacitly nudged India to stay away from any move by the United States to turn the Quad into a NATO-like military alliance in order to contain China in the Indo-Pacific region.
3. Pakistan-Russia ties: Russia can also take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen its cooperation with Pakistan in this light as a warning to India. If Russia intensifies its cooperation with Pakistan, India will face greater challenges in geopolitical security. Recently, after visiting Delhi, the Russian Foreign Minister visited Pakistan for the first time in nine years. This was a clear message of deepening ties. Russia has expressed readiness to strengthen Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts with the supply of “relevant equipment”, which will raise eyebrows in Delhi.
4. AF-Pak: The U.S. government has not fully embraced India as a strategic partner over any of its existing partners in South Asia, including India’s arch-rival Pakistan, and elsewhere. The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) — a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan — continued to freely engage with Pakistan in its War on Terror in Afghanistan despite India’s calling Pakistan a terrorist state.
5. NATO’s Weaknesses: While NATO is an impressive military alliance, it is riven with divisions on how to share the military burden and strike the right balance between NATO and the EU’s quest for an independent military role. NATO members disagree on Russia, the Middle East, and China. Meanwhile, conflicts among NATO members — for example, Greece and Turkey — have sharpened. NATO’s recent adventures out of Europe — in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya have not inspired awe.

WAY FORWARD

There is an imperative need on part of both parties to collaborate immediately. The big question remains how they can move in this direction. At this juncture, NATO needs to explain to New Delhi’s strategic community how it has changed since the Cold War and clearly convey its intentions to forge a “partnership of equals.”

Moreover, NATO needs to make Indian policymakers realize that it is a win-win situation for both parties to enter cooperation and collaboration. On the other hand, India needs to come out of its Cold War mindset and consider NATO a potential partner.

India is certainly considered an essential element of any strategy in the region. But so far, New Delhi has not dared either to directly align itself with the U.S. To contain China or add an outright anti-Chinese dimension to its participation in the Quad.

Meanwhile, the growing gap in national power, the long-term border confrontation, and other related factors might well push Indian strategists to a certain revision of the policy of strategic autonomy and make the U.S. the main security donor, as in the case of Australia and Japan.

If Delhi is eager to draw a reluctant Russia into discussions on the Indo-Pacific, it makes little sense in avoiding engagement with NATO, which is now debating a role in Asia’s waters. Russia has not made a secret of its reservations to the Quad and Delhi’s ties with Washington. Putting NATO into that mix is unlikely to make much difference.

Delhi, in turn, can’t be happy with the deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing. As mature states, India and Russia know they have to insulate their bilateral relationship from the larger structural trends buffeting the world today.

Meanwhile, both Russia and China have an intensive bilateral engagement with Europe. Delhi’s continued reluctance to engage a major European institution like NATO will be a stunning case of strategic self-denial.

China sees India as the principal impediment to the realization of its ambitions to dominate Asia and this is likely to lead to more violent confrontations. New Delhi should pursue a multifaceted strategy that includes cooperative elements, but there is ultimately little that India can do to mitigate the underlying sources of the rivalry. India has all the more reason to partner with the United States in a NATO-style arrangement.

CONCLUSION

Partnering with NATO would not significantly constrain India’s broader geostrategic options. 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.

A sustained dialogue between India and NATO could facilitate productive exchanges in a range of areas, including terrorism, changing geopolitics; the evolving nature of military conflict, the role of emerging military technologies, and new military doctrines. More broadly, an institutionalized engagement with NATO should make it easier for Delhi to deal with the military establishments of its 30 member states. On a bilateral front, each of the members has much to offer in strengthening India’s national capabilities. NATO must extend a formal partnership offer to Delhi; India must shed its hesitation. Both have a common challenge.