How defence diplomacy can help India achieve its global, geostrategic ambitions

India’s key objectives are to ensure (i) sovereignty and territorial integrity, and (ii) a peaceful and stable environment in which it can achieve rapid economic growth and prosperity for its people. The foundations of India’s external engagement rest on the teachings of Buddha and Gandhi, essentially shaping the vision of peaceful coexistence and the oneness of humankind as evidenced in the motto for India’s G20 presidency — “One Earth, One Family, One Future”. That sentiment, deeply ingrained in India’s civilisational ethos, flows from the Sanskrit saying, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world is one family), of the Maha Upanishad. Non-violence is at the heart of India’s vision, but it is not an impediment in the defence of the nation against aggressors. Even Mahatma Gandhi, a fervent advocate of peace and non-violence, said in 1924 that “between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice”. Carl von Clausewitz, the German-Prussian soldier and theorist of the 18th century famously, said that “war is the continuation of politics by other means”. Kautilya’s Arthashastra reflects on the importance of the Mandalas, the “circles” in which defence, statecraft and diplomacy are readily applied. It highlights the nature and importance of allies and the principles of self-interest which govern such ties. Above all, it wisely suggests that when a state has an army, allies remain friendly and even the enemy becomes friendlier. Maintaining strong defence forces and engaging in defence diplomacy are two sides of the same coin. They go hand in hand. That is perhaps the basis of Theodore Roosevelt’s cautionary advice: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” A strong military, similarly, helps to further the objective of peace. American scholars Giles Harlow and George Maerz said, “You have no idea how much it contributes to the general politeness and pleasantries in diplomacy when you have a little quiet armed force in the background.” As one of the world’s largest countries with contested borders in the north with China and in the west with Pakistan, India needs to continue to work for the peaceful settlement of disputes, but at the same time, to keep its powder dry. India also needs to build strong defence forces that are capable of ensuring peace with neighbours as well as deterring aggression. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian armed forces have been better funded and better equipped than ever before to meet multiple challenges and threats along its continental and maritime domains. India is promoting self-reliance and aatmanirbharta in defence manufacturing. India has a long history of practising defence diplomacy. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are replete with examples of defence diplomacy. In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna acts as a peace envoy to prevent war between the warring Kauravas and the Pandavas. India’s indigenous strategic thought is rich in scope and content. There is much that can be learnt from the Arthashastra, including the use of Sama (dialogue), Daam (inducement), Dand (coercion) and Bhed (sowing divisions). One of the first examples of defence diplomacy for a newly independent India was the dispatch of the 60th Field Ambulance contingent to the Korean Peninsula from November 1950 till February 1954, to provide medical assistance to both South Korean and US troops as well as to members of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, North Korean Prisoner of Wars (PoWs) and civilians. India also chaired the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC) to monitor the exchange of PoWs, under the chairmanship of Major General KS Thimayya. Over the years, the Indian armed forces have distinguished themselves in UN Peacekeeping Operations, from Congo to Cambodia. India has contributed about 195,000 troops, the largest number from any country, and participated in more than 49 missions. 168 Indian peacekeepers have laid down their lives in the service of peace and progress in different parts of the world. Today, India is the second-largest troop contributor. Indian troops and force commanders have proved to be the finest exemplars of defence diplomacy and building peace and harmony in conflict-prone regions. India has also used its growing defence logistics capabilities to build its credibility as a first responder in dealing with regional crises. Indian troops were despatched to the Maldives in 1988 (Operation Cactus) to prevent a coup. India used its considerable naval and airlift capabilities to conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations (HADR) in the region in 2004 in the aftermath of the tsunami. More recently, Indian armed forces evacuated stranded Indians from Yemen (Operation Rahat) in 2015, Operation Ganga (Ukraine) in 2022 and Operation Kaveri (South Sudan) in 2023. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian armed forces delivered oxygen, medical equipment and other assistance to a number of countries as part of defence diplomacy. When the ships of the Indian Navy pay friendly visits and port calls around the world, they engage in joint exercises, project Indian culture and cuisine and often help in repairing local infrastructure and strengthening capacity-building programmes. Likewise, when India’s air warriors and Army personnel carry out joint exercises with counterparts of friendly nations, they create the grounds for a shared convergence in furthering a rules-based international order. As part of its defence diplomacy, India has also gifted aircraft, naval patrol vessels and helicopters to many nations, often at the cost of equipping its own forces, in order to create friendship and goodwill with countries such as Mauritius, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and others. The contributions made by the Indian Navy’s Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), the International Fleet Review, and especially India’s grand Republic Day parade, in the conduct of defence diplomacy, are noteworthy. Each of the three defence services has its own programmes for building bridges with counterparts around the world. The defence training institutions in India also host foreign defence officials from friendly countries for various training courses. At times, defence diplomacy is employed to defuse tensions and avoid conflicts by engaging in confidence-building measures. Even with countries with which India has adversarial relations and unresolved boundary disputes, there is scope for defence diplomacy to play a key role. India and China, for instance, have an institutionalised dialogue mechanism including scheduled border personnel meetings, unscheduled flag meetings and hotlines on the border which have helped maintain contact and dialogue in the aftermath of the bloody Galwan incident in 2020. Dialogue at the level of the Corps Commanders and their lower echelons have helped to disengage in some places. It is an unfortunate fact that defence diplomacy has scant use, if any, in India’s dealings with Pakistan. The Army establishment in Pakistan uses cross-border terrorism as part of its destabilising tactics against India. Apart from the occasional exchange of sweets at border crossings during national festivals, the use of defence diplomacy with Pakistan is infructuous because Rawalpindi finds any civilised contact with India’s armed forces counter-productive to sustaining its radical narrative that India is an enemy “to be bled by a thousand cuts”. The Indian armed forces observe high standards of human dignity even in dealing with the enemy’s war casualties. One may recall that even at the height of the Kargil War in 1999, the Indian Army had given the dead Pakistani soldiers an honourable burial in accordance with religious practice, and where possible, returned their mortal remains to the Pakistani side. That is part of the rich tradition of the Indian armed forces. Today, in an uncertain world in which the balance of power is constantly shifting, India’s strategic autonomy enables it to take appropriate decisions in determining cooperation with like-minded partners in defence manufacturing and logistics. As a continental and maritime power, India conducts defence diplomacy, whether on our land borders, the extended neighbourhood or in the extensive maritime domain across the Indo-Pacific. Defence diplomacy has many uses. It is used to build friendship and cooperation with friendly countries. High-level defence exchanges, joint exercises, friendly cultural contacts and sports events are part of India’s tool-kit and support its rise as a power that contributes to the global good. The author, a former Ambassador, is the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. 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