“Indian Foreign Policy in a Geopolitically Fraught Asia: Shaping Strategic Calculus, across Continental and Maritime Domains”

Intense geostrategic churn is underway, across continental and maritime stretches of the Indo Pacific, coalesced around hegemonic quests for critical resources, big tech, currency ascendancy, and human innovation skills and talents. As a prominently rising Asian power with global equities, it’s intriguing to decide how India navigates the geopolitical minefield brought on by US-China big power competition, trade fragmentation, and stresses to multilateralism in pursuance of global commons cooperation. New Delhi has shown commendable strategic craft and resilience in pursuing national interests and diplomatic statecraft initiatives anchored in principles of ‘Strategic Autonomy’ and ‘Multi-Alignment’, allowing it to balance roles within juxtaposing frameworks of the G7 Plus and the BRICS or the Quad and the RIC respectively. Notwithstanding, India has brought a certain uniqueness to provisioning of public goods across the Global South, which also mandates an insightful understanding. The talk shall essentially demystify the institutional dynamics and policy mechanics that shape India’s strategic positioning in the Indo-Pacific and global order.

Dattesh D. Parulekar PhD is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at the School of International and Area Studies Goa University.