Modi Goes to America: Geopolitics
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, is a nationalist and populist whom the American public and political leadership find distasteful, including other Western and democratic liberal circles regarding Prime Minister Modi.
Modi is the leader of a new and upcoming power that could very well take over China within this century due to its good demographics, and the Chinese population over the next 20 years will have a freefall due to not having the population in terms of the age range to have children.
The optimal time for a woman to have babies is from 18 to 35 years old, and sadly China no longer has the birthing capacity to keep its demographics stable.
As for India in regards to their national politics, they are primarily India first.
This would usually be fine because all nations put forward the interests of their country first.
Still, the problem with India sees the world mainly from their viewpoint and nationalist interests of India.
During the Cold War from 1945 to 1989 and to a lesser extent in the post-Cold War period, have had a strong trading relationship and almost close relations with Moscow.
The reason why India had good relations with the Soviet Union and its successor states, the Russian Federation, was because the government in the Kremlin have no strategic interests in the Indian subcontinent.
When the war on terror began in 2001, with the destruction of the twin towers and the invasion of Afghanistan, relations between India and the US took a downward spiral due to the American’s closer relationship with Pakistan, which is a historical enemy of India has been to war four times against each other.
With America and the NATO alliance dependent upon supply lines into Pakistan to supply the military in Afghanistan, this is led to a deterioration in relations between the United States and India.
Relations could be improved with the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 under the Biden administration.
India’s Geopolitical Situation
As a united political entity and nationality, India doesn’t exist as a united country in the same way as the United States of America, France and Great Britain.
The geopolitical analyst Peter Zilhen has stated that India is like the Roman Empire, governed by its internal states, not by a central authority.
This, in turn, makes Indian international policy-making and regional decision-making focus primarily on the Indian subcontinent and puts India’s priorities first, which makes them shortsighted but not stupid that’s why they are backing away from their cooperation and almost partnership with Russia.
Enemies surround India in the forms of Pakistan and China, and their abilities to manoeuvre outside the Indian subcontinent are minimal.
What India does have going for that state is its proximity to the Persian Gulf and access to oil from the Arabs and Persians, and another positive for India is that with the ending of the war on terror, the United States and nations in the Pacific have no genuine interest in that region.
Unlike the rest of the world, which may suffer chronic supply shortages of fuel due to the insecurity of global shipping lanes, India won’t have that problem due to its geographical location.
Furthermore, India never truly bought into globalisation and always put the internal needs of India first, which means should the global order and international trade collapse, India will emerge relatively unscathed.
Global trade comprises over $21 trillion, and 25 per cent of economic activity happens on the global oceans and shipping lanes.
India has no friends, but it also has no arch enemies bearing.
Pakistan may be a problem in the next few decades because that nation is a failed state. It depends if failing states like Russia, Pakistan, China possibly a few others will bring their neighbours down with them.
