Central Asia in India's Foreign Policy Strategy

Abstract

In the early 1990s, India's foreign policy strategy faced the challenge of reevaluating the country's position and role in the emerging new international order. This prompted India to change its approach to foreign policy. The dominance of the United States in global politics actually led to a temporary autonomy of India's foreign policy within the framework of the emerging opportunity for New Delhi to possess nuclear weapons (intensive interactions with the United States, Israel, and countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations). However, starting from the 2000s, India began to perceive itself as a country capable of exerting a balancing influence in the world (nuclear deal between India and the United States, solidarity with China on climate change and trade issues, and broadening of ties with Russia and other major regional countries). This trend in Indian foreign policy continues to this day. India has become more sensitive to its capabilities and understands the expectations that the world has for it. Thanks to the expanded neighborhood policy (the concepts of "Act East", "Think West", "Northern Policy", "Connect Central Asia"), India has managed to form an almost new foreign policy course aimed at promoting partnership for the development far beyond South Asia, including the Central Asian countries.