Is It Time For India to Spearhead the Indian Ocean Treaty Alliance

Is It Time For India to Spearhead the Indian Ocean Treaty Alliance

Asia needs a powerful regional treaty alliance for defense cooperation. Asian nations should cooperate not only in trade but also in military and defense strategy, jointly developing techniques to counter-terrorism and regional military threats. Asian Treaty Alliance might be the answer to a number of geopolitical issues of Asian nations especially the South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Fragile foreign relations also affect economic relations thus hampering the growth and development of the region. It is the only way like-minded nations with similar political structures can come together to impact change in the region.

Asian nations are still locked in the political and economic relations handed down to them in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through their colonial rulers. Even though most of the nations obtained independence in the twentieth century, they still fail to utilize self-determination in their foreign relations. India should aim to correct its course of history by re-aligning itself with long lost friends in the Indian Ocean region. It is time for Asian nations to think beyond their geo-political neighborhood and foster an Asian Treaty alliance aimed to preserve peace and prosperity in the region.

India if it plans to be a member of an association for economic and defense cooperation it should look towards the Indian Ocean. India should take lead in developing an association similar to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) by including other states on the Indian Ocean economic zone. Indian Ocean Treaty alliance could include democratic nations such as Japan, Thailand, Australia, Phillippines, Vietnam, and South Africa.

China is landlocked on its northern borders and is limited in its sea access by its close neighbors. In this close China is resorting to techniques to force its neighbors to surrender to its expanding sphere of influence. China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei have competing claims on the South China Sea. As its international arbitration bid failed recently, China is coming back with a renewed vigor to establish superiority in the region, which has recently faced a setback in the international court of arbitration with the Philippines. With China militarizing heavily on its land and water borders, it is more than ever necessary for Asian democratic nations to not only come together in a temporary gesture of cooperation but a permanent treaty alliance.

India is in a geographical bind, surrounded by states that are steeped either in political turmoil brought on by terrorism (Pakistan and Bangladesh) or crushed under the weight of totalitarian regimes (China and Iran). India’s immediate neighbors, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, although considered democratic states suffer under the shadows of a military coup in their recent past. Brexit has recently proved that a nation does not always have to remain in alliance with its immediate neighbors, but could foster relations with far off neighbors in order to optimize economic progress and development. Any association dictated by geographical proximity rather than political, social, and economic ideas is bound to fail in the face of crisis. Therefore, India must look beyond its geographical border to foster stronger relations as it embarks on its path of progress and development.

India’s geographical fate is further complicated by the international economic and political cooperation (SAARC- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and NAM-Non Aligned Movement) groups it is part of, which also includes some of these troubled countries in its neighborhood. SAARC (South Asian Association for Cooperation) represents an acronym that could not be easily understood. The acronym is a true representation of the hodge-podge of states that it includes. Other than geographical proximity of its member states (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Srilanka, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan) are completely different from each other in political, economic, and social structures. It is strange that Myanmar is still not a member of this group. Similar is the case with NAM. India joined the Non-Aligned Movement with Nehru's initiative with lofty goals, but due to the nature of states that joined it, there is very little that it accomplished. It exists only in name, while a number of its members are currently in conditions that are similar to civil war, no diplomatic or military initiative is ever undertaken by this group. Emerging crises have rendered the NAM become an association that holds periodic meetings with no significant contributions. Half of the nations that are members of this group, such as Algeria and Egypt are struggling with internal terrorist organizations, while some states such as Zambia, Cuba, and Iran is still struggling to establish democratic states. India is the only stable, and established democracy in this group of nations. With the internal and external terror threats and border disputes, it is impossible for NAM to progress beyond the basic economic cooperation. 

           

Any association dictated by geographical proximity rather than political, social, and economic ideas is bound to fail in the face of crisis. Half of the nations that are members of this group are struggling with internal terrorist organizations, and some are still struggling to establish democratic states. India is the only stable, and established democracy in this group of nations.

Hence it is time for India to look beyond its geographical region to think strategically and join a treaty alliance with a view to obtain military and diplomatic cooperation in addition to economic development. India if it plans to be a member of an association for economic and defense cooperation it should look towards the Indian Ocean. India should take lead in developing an association similar to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) by inviting democratic nations on the Indian Ocean economic zone such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, and Japan. Asia needs a powerful regional association of cooperation. These nations should cooperate not only in trade but also in military and defense strategy, jointly developing techniques to counter terrorist and military threats. 

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