BJP manifesto gains global scan for fading focus on Indo-Pacific
BJP manifesto mentions Indo Pacific once, spotlights Global South 6 times
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, April 15: Prime Mi
nister Narendra Modi on Sunday morning unveiled the manifesto of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Called the ‘Sankalpa Patra’, the BJP’s poll document is inviting scrutiny for fading focus of the Narendra Modi-led government on Indo-Pacific.
“PM Modi’s manifesto is out just before the election. On foreign policy, the first goal is ‘Leading the Global South’,” commented Kyunghoon Kim, an Associate research fellow at Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.
The spotlight on the BJP manifesto follows the US President, Joe Biden, hosting heads of the states of Japan and Philippines last week. Also, there is a strong buzz on the likely induction of member nations in AUCKUS (Australia, the UK, and the US).
India is now missing out from the list of the likely new members of AUCKUS, which is known as a naval grouping with specific task to counter China in the Indo Pacific. Yonhap News Agency recently claimed that the US is considering onboarding Canada, New Zealand, and South Korea in the AUCKUS.
“India aims to strengthen its position as a ‘Voice of the Global South,” Kyunghoon Kim noted. He also mentioned that ‘Global South’ was “mentioned six times in the (BJP) manifesto while the Indo-Pacific found just one mention”.
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External Affairs Minister Shubhramanyam Jaishankar visited the Philippines recently to give a message of solidarity amid China’s overt bulling of the fishing boats of Manila in the South China Sea. Subsequently, the US, Australia, and Japan held joint naval drill in the South China Sea.
The US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emmanuel, had claimed that the joint naval drill showed an architecture of the Indo-Pacific defence cooperation. Japan, incidentally, is now more active in the Indo-Pacific than India.
“In 2021, the US had to push Japanese PM (Yoshihide) Suga to mention Taiwan in a joint statement for 1st time since 1969. Biden-Kishida statement mentions Taiwan and has lots more tough language related to China that illustrates the dramatic shift in Japan,” commented Demetri, the Financial Times Correspondent for the US and China in a post on X.
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While India remains non-committal to deploy the naval assets in the Indo-Pacific, the US clearly appears looking at other options. Also, India is being tested by China by maintaining belligerent military positions in the eastern western of the line of actual control (LAC).
“We can expect strong South-South cooperation especially between India, Brazil & South Africa aka IBSA which will play a pivotal role as the G20 troika this year,” added Kyunghoon Kim.
Modi after releasing the BJP manifesto remarked that India would pursue an independent foreign policy. Modi mentioned the shadow of war in some parts of the world. He stressed that India would pursue an independent foreign policy to suit the national interests.
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