A.1. Historical Background of India’s Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings
Historically, India’s global partnerships have evolved since the British Raj (1857-1947), an era when the British Empire controlled its foreign and defense affairs.
When India gained independence in 1947, few Indians had experience in making or conducting foreign policy. However, the country’s oldest political party, the Indian National Congress, had established a small foreign department in 1925 to make overseas contacts and to publicize its independence struggle.
India’s international influence varied over the years after independence. Indian prestige and moral authority were high in the 1950s and facilitated the acquisition of developmental assistance from both East and West.
Although the prestige stemmed from India’s nonaligned stance, the nation could not prevent Cold War politics from becoming intertwined with interstate relations in South Asia.
In the 1960s and 1970s, India’s international position among developed and developing countries faded in the course of wars with China and Pakistan, disputes with other countries in South Asia, and India’s attempt to balance Pakistan’s support from the United States and China by signing the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in August 1971.
Although India obtained substantial Soviet military and economic aid, which helped to strengthen the nation, India’s influence was undercut regionally and internationally by the perception that its friendship with the Soviet Union prevented a more forthright condemnation of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
In the late 1980s, India improved relations with the United States, other developed countries, and China while continuing close ties with the Soviet Union. Relations with its South Asian neighbors, especially Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, occupied much of the energies of the Ministry of External Affairs,
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Indian intelligence agencies provided the US with significant information on Al-Qaeda and related groups’ activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
India’s extensive contribution to the War on Terror, coupled with a surge in its economy, has helped India’s diplomatic relations with several countries.
Over the past three years, India has held numerous joint military exercises with US and European nations that have resulted in a strengthened US-India and EU-India bilateral relationship. India’s bilateral trade with Europe and the United States has more than doubled in the last five years.