India and other Countries-notes

 

India and other Countries-notes

In the last chapter, we studied the United Nations and got to know about its role in peacekeeping. We also got to know that India has always helped the United Nations in this task. In this chapter, we shall take a critical review of India’s relations with neighbouring countries. We will also understand India’s relations with some faraway nations.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Maldives are India’s neighbours. The values of equality and mutual respect have a great importance in India’s foreign policy. India has established relations with neighbouring countries on the basis of these values. India is the biggest country in the Indian subcontinent. Similarly, India is economically and technologically more advanced. It is thus natural that India has a great influence among the South Asian countries. India and Pakistan In 1947 India was partitioned and two independent countries, India and Pakistan, were created. India-Pakistan : Indo-Pak relations are influenced by three main factors:

 (1) Differences in the world views of both the countries

(2) the Kashmir question and (3) Nuclear rivalry between the two countries India and Pakistan have totally different world views. In line with the Indian world view, India opposed the military alliances of the Cold War and tried to solve the Indo-Pak conflict bilaterally.

The Shimla Agreement of 1972 was based on this principle. On the other hand, Pakistan tried to maintain relations with the Islamic world and China and entered into a military agreement with America. Pakistan considers Kashmir as the biggest hurdle in establishing relations with India. The first Indo-Pak war took place in 1965 over Kashmir. The Tashkent Agreement was signed in 1966, but nothing much came out of it. Even though the 1971 war was about the creation of Bangladesh, it also had the dimension of the Kashmir problem to it.

The Shimla Agreement in1972 provided a new format to the interaction between India and Pakistan. In 1999, there was a conflict between India and Pakistan over the infiltration by Pakistan in the Kargil region. Even today the Kashmir question is the basic cause of conflict between the two countries. The nature of the conflict has changed and this new type of conflict can be described as terrorism. Both India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in 1998 and that gave rise to new concerns in this region. Many countries feel that these two nations should not get locked in nuclear conflict.

One more issue in Indo-Pak relations is the border dispute in Sir Creek area. Both countries have made efforts to establish a dialogue with each other; but considering the way in which Pakistan is supporting terrorists against India and is engineering terrorist activities in India, all efforts at establishing dialogue are proving to be unsuccessful. India-China : The conflict between India and China is connected to two issues: (1) Border issue and (2) Status of Tibet The Border dispute between India and China is related to Aksai Chin area and the Macmahon line. China claims that the area south of Aksai Chin and Macmahon line (Arunachal Pradesh) is Chinese Territory. China is not willing to agree that Macmahon Line is an international border. India made several efforts to sort this border dispute by means of dialogue. But it has not met with much success. In 1962 China attacked India.

Tibet was traditionally autonomous. But when China was stepping up its military control in Tibet, Dalai Lama took asylum in India. This issue has been responsible for the conflict between the two countries. The threat to India’s security is increasing due to the friendship between China and Pakistan, supply of weapons from China to Pakistan and also transfer of missile and nuclear weapons technology. The increasing friendship between China and Pakistan and increasing influence of China over India’s other neighbours is a cause of concern for India.

 Even then, India has always made efforts to improve relations with China. A joint executive group has been set up to solve the SinoIndian border dispute. When the rate of economic growth of both India and China increased, the trade relations between both the countries began to get strengthened. Because of improvement in economic and trade relations between India and China and a series of tripartite talks between Russia, China and India, Sino-Indian relations are improving slowly. Even though the border dispute is not completely resolved, it has taken a back seat and relations in other areas have become more important. India and other neighbours Afghanistan :

There is a lot of political instability in Afghanistan. The dominance of the terrorist organisation Taliban is responsible for this. India has extended help to bring peace, security and stability, curb violence and establish a democratic government. Similarly, India is also helping Afghanistan in reestablishing communication facilities that have got destroyed due to war, build roads, cooperate in the fields of science and technology and build schools, health facilities and irrigation projects. Bangladesh : Today’s Bangladesh is the erstwhile East Pakistan. When Pakistan was created, it had two parts : West and East Pakistan. There was linguistic difference between them. There were other political conflicts as well. The movement to liberate Bangladesh emerged out of this. This movement tried to free Bangladesh from the dominance of West Pakistan.

 India helped Bangladesh in its freedom struggle. Bangladesh was formed in 1971. Some treaties were signed between India and Bangladesh about sharing river waters and some regarding the shared border, which put an end to the conflict between them. Now trade relations between the two countries are growing. Sri Lanka : India has friendly relations with the southern neighbour Sri Lanka. Political instability in Sri Lanka after 1985 was a result of the differences between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan Government. At that time India had sent a peacekeeping force to help the Sri Lankan government. Friendly relations with Sri Lanka are important from the point of view of security in the Indian Ocean. Nepal : Nepal and Bhutan are landlocked countries surrounded by mountainous terrain. Their boundaries are linked with India and China.

The foundation of friendship between India and Nepal was laid with Indo-Nepalese Friendship Treaty in 1950. According to this treaty, Nepalese citizens can not only enter India, but they are also permitted to take up government jobs and carry on trade in India. The year 1990 marked the beginning of Nepal’s transition to democracy. Nepal is dependent upon India for economic progress, basic facilities, food related needs, trade and energy needs. India sent a lot of help to Nepal at the time of the 2015 earthquake. Bhutan : India bears the responsibility of the defence of Bhutan. Bhutan has a huge source of water. India has cooperated in the project to produce hydel power on a large scale using this source. Myanmar : Myanmar is India’s door to the South East Asian countries. South Asia, Middle Asia and South East Asia will be connected with each other with the rail and roadways that are being developed in this area. This will help increase trade and other exchange in this region. India will be able to import natural gas from Myanmar. Maldives : India’s relations with Maldives have been friendly right from the beginning. This small nation to the South of India is dependent on India for a lot of reasons. Trade relations have been established between the two since 1981.

 India has helped Maldives in the development of basic facilities or infrastructure, health and communication. From 2006 onwards, cooperation in the military field also started between the two countries. They have entered into treaties with respect to cooperation in space research, conservation of historical objects and tourism. Similarly they have decided to cooperate in the area of fighting against terrorism. India and America India and America are two powerful nations who have democratic political systems. Right from the beginning, America was India’s most important trading partner. Many Indians went to