Kumardeep Banerjee
A couple of high decibel global events in picturesque locales dominated headlines in the past few days while India grimly remembered one year of a brutal military ambush in the north-eastern frontiers by China. This sets the stage in more ways than one for a focused coalition of open dialogues between some of the richest and largest democracies in the world. One of the first few events in these series was the new US president meeting old allies and not-so-friendly regimes at various platforms like G7 and NATO besides holding bilaterals on crucial world issues. This also signifies US’ rekindled interest in multilateral platforms and re-claiming its seat on the global stage. The world economies have undergone a significant change ever since the G7 started meeting formally in the 1970s. A couple in the G7 have lost their largest-economy status and new ones like India and China have moved in. China has galloped to being an extremely voracious market for many European luxury products, cars,etc., building significant interlocked linkages with these economies. It has also leapfrogged on the global technology arena with its gigantic manufacturing units cornering a significant share of the global supply chain for technology equipment. Heady with its recent wealth and technology prowess, China has also moved its military units to strategic locations in its neighborhood while using its debt-trap diplomacy on weaker nations as the ‘velvet glove on an iron fist’. The post-2008 financial crisis world, lulled by the need for large, addressable markets and money for spending, has been ignoring most of these strategic moves until 2020, when suddenly a microbe jolted everyone out of their dream. Citizens around the globe experienced their worst nightmares played out with the Covid pandemic raging and bringing nation after nation down. The only exception was China (from where the microbe originated), which in just two months was able to bring its economy back on track while continuing with its technology and military maneuvers on the global stage.
However, the world has perhaps learnt a lesson and despite ambivalence among some open democratic countries,the majority are willing to collaborate and work towards a new order. This is where India bruised by China in the middle of the pandemic has a huge opportunity. The key narrative emerging from the recent global meetings of world leaders has been to move away from a China-dictated supply chain and find new allies and friends. Strategically the Indo-Pacific region therefore gains prominence in all top leader’s dialogues. India has a geographical advantage of being right in the middle of this theatre of global attention and action. The coming together of US, Japan, Australia and India aboard the Quad focusing on a peaceful Indo-Pacific is a challenge to China’s aggressive military moves in that region. India has to move aggressively on QUAD, bringing the other three allies on same page on shared issues of concern. India currently is one of the largest vaccine makers in the world and what most leaders agree is the world is as weak today as the last unvaccinated person. The aim to put a jab on every shoulder cannot be achieved without India playing a significant role in the process. This is also a huge money-making opportunity for the country while creating a specialisation in the emerging threat of biological hazards preventive care. India has to negotiate with the big pharma for manufacturing opportunities simplifying regulations for setting up global units in the country in order to ease the manner of doing business while working towards the dream of becoming the pharmacy to the world.
(The writer is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)
