India’s Military Diplomacy: Exploring Opportunities and Cooperation in Hard Power

Military diplomacy is the peaceful use of military capabilities and resources to pursue the objective, i.e. a nation’s foreign policy (external interest). Exercise of military power in the form of diplomacy, also known as defence diplomacy, and ongoing conflicts and war between countries make military diplomacy essential.

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Because of countries changing attitudes and perceptions, new alliances have been formed. India, a democratic nation in Asia, is transforming into a global power to establish its authority over the region and maintain peace and stability.

Military diplomacy helps a country become a formidable power. India is the only formidable power in the region against China; India focuses on countering China because China poses a significant threat not only to India but also to the majority of countries in the region; it destabilises peace and security in the area.

INDIA’S MILITARY COOPERATION THROUGH QUAD

India, a developing nation, played a fruitful role in the QUAD and engaged in multiple military exercises in the region. Malabar exercise is one of the major naval exercises in Asia; India is involved in various military exercises and drills between numerous countries to exchange their knowledge in strategising the battle and tactics between them.

Military diplomacy helps countries ally and pave the way for coordinated operations to achieve their common objectives. During the emergency period, the interoperability between the countries impacts the outcome.

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Military diplomacy not only ensures India achieves the status of formidable power, but it also helps India become a central defence exporting country; it also provides an advantageous hand in defence export as the country’s requirement is easier satisfied because of frequent exercises and military drills.

This significant impact on our domestic defence industries, such as India exporting its weapons and spares to the U.S., Armenia, France, Ethiopia, and Chile, and the export of Brahmos missiles to the Philippines, caught attention in the global arena.

It helps India's research and development to push themselves to the next level, and new investment helps the discovery of state-of-the-art weapons with cost-effectiveness as Western weapons are considered more effective; the development of new Indian weapons creates a new market in the Western-dominated defence sector.

INDIA’S MILITARY DIPLOMACY CONTAINING CHINA

China, a country of dual stand and double-speaking, cannot be trusted easily due to frequent border infiltration and false claiming of Indian territory by naming them in Chinese.

Further,  China has constructed artificial islands to claim the maritime borders of other countries, which has become a routine drama in the region; a military alliance of countries compost of southeast Asian countries to be formed to establish military cooperation between the southeast Asian countries the collective security of the countries enables steady growth and development in the region.

Further, the exchange of military personnel between the countries encourages mutual understanding, the transfer of technology and the sharing of the available resources, allowing the country to create changes in the defence sector. India is ensuring smooth military relations with its neighbouring countries. This relationship between India and other countries will help to counter Chinese aggression in the future.

COOPERATION USING DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY AND JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES

Military diplomacy of India should be extended by conducting more military exercises and training between the countries. India should include Middle Eastern countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel in developing new weapons and in R&D.

This helps India achieve modern technology. India will receive huge investment from these countries in developing these weapons. It also increases the employment opportunities for the young population of our nation, and through this, India will benefit economically. As a significant power in the Asian continent,  China is trying to contain India’s development through various means and methods to counter the threats from China.

India should be self-sufficient in its weapons. The purchase of the S-400 missile system from Russia to counter aerial threats from Pakistan and China due to the Russia-Ukraine war, there is a significant delay in the delivery of the missiles to India. Military diplomacy helps India to achieve self-sufficiency in weapons as the weapons are entirely made domestically.

CONCLUSION

To improve military diplomacy, India should initiate military exercise drills between the Southeast Asian nations, and military agreements should be signed to create trust among themselves; as mentioned earlier, Malabar exercises major naval exercises in the region, the involvement of countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Korea has to advocate since without their participation peace cannot be established.

India should develop a proper institutionalised mechanism for the development of Military relations. India has fought many wars and has collective experience in warfare and frequent counter-insurgency operations, which can be shared among the nations. India has one of the greatest intelligence agencies, which can be combined with other countries' agencies for effective results-sharing of intelligence between the nations to improve their security.

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BY KEERTHII 

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com