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India is slowly turning into the Switzerland of Asia, and that's because India is in a very unique geopolitical position, in fact a way better position than Switzerland's, for a few very interesting reasons. Let's not forget, India is a huge country with more than a billion people and 1 of the fastest growing economies in the world. So, using some of these resources to position itself well among several of its allies and secure its independence as a superpower with armed neutrality makes a lot of sense. You know, part of the recipe for Switzerland's success. In India's position, it just seems as an excellent way of countering the 2 most important adversaries at their doorstep, which are by the way, growing closer and closer by the day.

You see, gaining independence through neutrality and maintaining good relations with all major countries is a great but challenging way to increase the price that enemies have to pay to mess with you. Switzerland knows this very well, and India is somehow set to do the impossible, You know, balancing China through good relations with Russia, the EU, the US, and others. It's kind of a perfect world for India if this could come to fruition. I mean, who would dare to go against everybody's best friend, right Switzerland? Now, the interesting thing is not that this idea is brewing, but instead how India is planning to and already is accomplishing this.

So here we go. First of all, the level of dedication India puts into its international agreements is astonishing. 1 great example is its participation in the QUAD Agreement, which stands for Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, that was opened in 2007 as a military and diplomatic collaboration network between the US, Japan, Australia, and India to manage their national interests in the Pacific and Indian oceans, oceans that are critical in the global trade. India has made it very clear that they want to keep the Quad as an open, constructive forum that inspires confidence and cooperation from countries in the region, and not anything like a proper military alliance. Basically meaning, let's all be civilized, good friends, and not cause any unnecessary trouble.

This caution both serves to safeguard India's military independence and neutrality in general, and to avoid angering neighboring China more than necessary. However, the Quad has quite openly been constituted to counter China's expansionist claims in the Indo-Pacific. You know, the supposedly Chinese islands that popped up out of thin air. You remember those, right? Yeah.

So, while it's probably fair to say India's participation in the Quad can be seen as a mixed signal against China, we can't say the same about the US. See, since Donald Trump's mandate as a President of the United States, America has tried to strengthen relations to gain the upper hand over China. This is why, in 2020, the US persuaded India to sign 2 crucial military cooperation agreements to gain access to classified geopolitical information about 1 another. Those were the BECA, which stands for Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation, and the LMOA, which stands for Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement. Now, this exchange of strategic information is very important for the US to cement their presence in the Asian region, but also for India to position itself as an independent and invaluable military power against its enemies.

However, it's not only the US who plans to use India as a way to balance Chinese influence in Asia, which is where it starts to get really interesting. See, in December 2021, Russia and India signed a white paper to coordinate their strategies in Asia, with a central focus on balancing the power on this vast land corridor that connects the 2 giants. This document explicitly encourages Russia and India to explore jointly leading a new non-alliant movement to maximize their respective strategic autonomy vis-a-vis the American and Chinese superpowers. What this means is that this document wants Russia and India to work together and create a group of countries that don't take sides with any major countries or groups like the United States or China which would help Russia and India be independent and do whatever they want without relying too much on any 1 powerful country. This would be good for them because it would allow them to keep control of their own country in a world that's getting more complicated and competitive.

And if you recall, this axis of influence and commercial relations crosses right in the middle of China's new Belt and Road Initiative that proposes to connect the DRC with the European Union and the West. All in all, India's network of strategic corporations and diplomatic alliances is very complex, so that India can basically avoid liabilities and too close friendships that might limit their long-term objective to steal Switzerland's spot as the referee of the world. Now, interestingly, India is not only flirting with China's best friend, but they're also trying to avoid making this too obvious. I know it sounds a bit strange, but hear me out. Since 2009, India has consolidated its position as 1 of the countries of the BRICS geopolitical bloc.

BRICS is a group of developing countries that are challenging the G7 group of rich countries. India is a part of this group, along with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. Together, they make up a big part of the world's population and economy. Now, being part of the BRICS group means that India can have a say in important global issues and not just be a part of groups led by Western countries. Moreover, India ultimately wants to promote itself as the bridge between the West, China, Russia, and possibly the rest of the globe.

This is why, despite the very recent sparks of tension in the Kashmir between India and China in 2017, the presidents of the 2 countries never actually cease to meet regularly to discuss reciprocal agreements and national interests. A great international arbiter, however, does not limit itself to the big fish in the ocean. Beyond the US, Russia, and China, India's diplomacy reaches virtually every corner of the world. In 2014, India emitted its Look East policy to step up its relation with the ASEAN bloc to the status of Strategic Partnership. The ASEAN, which stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is an international cooperation between 10 countries in the Indo-Pacific region that includes these countries.

As you can imagine, the ASEAN is a great player to partner with in the Indian Ocean, Both to raise the stakes of the match against China, but also to build ties with the maritime commercial hub controlling the Strait of Malacca itself. However, India is not just looking east, it's also looking south. Or rather, southwest. You see, India is the country with the largest diaspora in the world, meaning that around 18 million Indians live in other countries. This means that India receives a lot of money made by workers abroad for the use of its national economies.

But also that India has the perfect excuse to leverage diplomatic ties with many other countries. But okay, I think it's time I explain what it really means to be a neutral country, as there really are 2 different kinds of neutral countries. First, We have those that seek independence by affirming their own interests against everyone else by displaying force. And then we have those that seek these things by maintaining good diplomatic relations with all parties, namely autocracies and international arbiters. North Korea is the paramount example of the first kind.

Even China, despite its economic openness and international cooperation, has pursued a strong and sometimes violent foreign policy and rhetoric to further its geopolitical interests. When you think about the second kind, international arbiters that strive to maintain co-relations with every other country, you of course think of Switzerland. Yet, after the fall of the Soviet Union, India's pragmatism and ability to take part in different international discussions have strengthened, and it is now racing to become the new wave of flexible democracy in Asia. And now, India wants to turn neutrality into its own brand. You see, India's continued need for independence comes from its geographical position.

I mean, look at it. Nested at the middle of the Indian Ocean, India directly faces the Arabian Peninsula, Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia. Keep in mind that due to its position, India's maritime constituent zone is very close to the 3 most important commercial hubs of the planet, the Malacca Strait in the East, the Ormuz Strait over here, and the Adalma Dap Strait leading up to the Suez Canal in the West. 1 just cannot stress the importance of these passageways for international trade enough. The Strait of Malacca, for instance, between Singapore and Malaysia, facilitates 1 quarter of the world's maritime trade.

The Adel Madab Strait gives access from the Mediterranean Sea and hence Europe to the Indian Ocean without the need to circumnavigate Africa completely, as it used to be the case before the 19th century. Through the Suez Canal, just up north of the Edelmehdeb, 30% of the world's shipping container volume is passed, amounting to 12% of the global maritime trade. Lastly, the Hormuz Strait, controlled by Iran and the UAE, connects the global hub of oil and natural gas production to the Indian Ocean and the wider international trade. Just think that, in 2018, 1.4 million barrels of oil a day passed through the strait, which amounts to more than a fifth of global consumption of oil and more than a quarter of global consumption of liquefied natural gas, which is going to become more and more important with the isolation of Russia from the international energy market. If you put things into perspective, India's strategic location puts it in a both crucial and nerve-wracking geopolitical position.

You have to consider that the Suez Canal, while accounting for a mere 12% of the global maritime trade, is the main maritime connection between the wealthy European countries and basically half of the whole world. This tiny passage bridges the most developed nations of earth to some of their main commercial partners. Everybody clearly understood the importance of this canal when on March 24th, 2021, the Suez Canal was clogged by a cargo ship for a mere few days. So yeah, this state of affairs makes India the perfect broker between the West, or at least Europe, and commercial partners in Asia, Oceania, and even the West Coast of Africa. The same goes for the Humuus trade, of course, bringing together the immense wealth and natural resources of the Middle East to the open sea.

And lastly, you have to consider how much the Malacca Strait in and of itself is important not only for global trade per se, but above all for the biggest economy in the world as of 2023. You see, it's estimated that more than 80% of China's total consumption of oil is facilitated by the Malacca Strait, let alone the great role that the strait has to ship manufactured products from China to the West and Europe. And India knows this very well. In order to control the Malacca Strait more closely, in the event of rising tensions with the Chinese, Indian submarine bases with nuclear capability are strategically located on the East Coast of India near the border with Bangladesh. This is an opportunity to directly patrol or blockade access to the Malacca Strait in the event of a war with China.

This brought China itself to position 2 operational military fleets around the eastern end of the Malacca Strait in 2016 and 2017. If you take a map of the coast of China, you immediately see why the biggest economy in the world is quite nervous about this chain of events. You see, China's coast is simply surrounded by countries that are friendly to the West, and then those not so fancy of China's ever-growing regional power, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Indonesia, with US military bases longing just a few miles ahead, for instance in Guam. So, the only viable maritime way out of the Chinese Sea is actually the Malacca Strait. This is 1 of the reasons why China initiated its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 with the aim of reaching the rest of Eurasia for commercial trade on land and secure a safer way to do business.

So it makes sense, and why it's no surprise, that India refused to participate in financing the Belt and Road Initiative's proposed deviation worth $50 billion, which would have opened a corridor between China and Pakistan right at India's land borders. Speaking of which, India's border situation on land is, to put it lightly, very tense. And this explains a lot of India's rivalry with its 2 huge geopolitical neighbors, China and Pakistan, and its doctrine of armed neutrality. India shares a 3300 km long, as well as a 3400 km long, ill-defined border with Pakistan and China respectively. And this tension becomes more and more motivated as you consider that those borders are India's access to the Middle East and then Europe on 1 hand and Central Asia and the Far East on the other.

Hence the ongoing unrest between India, China and Pakistan. India and China actually went to war for exactly 1 month in 1962 for control of this remote region in the western end of the Himalaya. Peace was signed only in 1966 with the help of the Soviet Union. This greater geographical area is called Kashmir, and I probably don't need to tell you that it is still to this day the main reason for tensions and sporadic violence between the Indian and the Pakistani. 2 more periods of war broke out in the region, which housed roughly 10 million people in total in 1965 and then in 1999.

Nowadays, the Kashmir is partially administered by India and Pakistan, with the small corridors between the Ladakh and Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in China under Chinese control. The situation in the Himalaya, in general, prompted diplomatic divergences with India's geopolitical adversaries. For instance, just in 2020, China blocked India's attempts to join the UN Security Council as a permanent member. You see, as soon as the UN has to make up its mind on whether to consider an act of war as abiding with international law or not, the UN Security Council is summoned to make a decision on the matter. Currently, there are 5 members of the Council that are permanent, China, Russia, the US, the UK and France, and 4 that are temporary.

The position of temporary member is actually really attractive because each member of the Council has the right to veto UN resolutions, of course also following one's geopolitical interests. It is not a coincidence that traditionally neutral countries are trying to get more involved in the UN Security Council lately, because it's just an excellent way to consolidate one's country's role as a powerful and recognised arbiter in international disputes. Switzerland just bid to take up 2 consecutive mandates as a temporary member for the first time in its history, between 2023 and 2024. Of course, India would love to do the same, even though China's opposition is a great obstacle to do so at the moment. However, India's plan to bring its neutrality and pragmatism to the next level does not simply end with this rejection.

You have to consider the extreme complexity of the geopolitics concerning India and the South Asian region in general. You see, we are very used to associate Russia and China as great commercial partners and united military and diplomatic Allies, and rightly so, as they have plenty of reasons to collaborate on different fronts. And yet, the situation gets a little more complicated than that. Going back to 1962, the Soviet Union's president, Nikita Khrushchev, vetoed the Western resolution at the UN that essentially would have favoured Pakistan and China in the Kashmir dispute. This direct support for India's geopolitical interests is still very present even today, despite the recent international developments.

In 2019, for instance, Putin's Russia once again offered support to India by sponsoring the UN regulations that would leave the Kashmir dispute a matter of domestic competence for India and not source of third-party interference. Even more surprisingly, just in fall 2022, Russia invited India to take part in a joint military operation together with China itself, while India continues to maintain close ties to the very enemies of Russia and China, the US and the EU. But I think it's finally time to address the elephant in the room. See, in 2000, the first EU-India summit was organised and relations stepped up in 2004 to the status of strategic partnership. By 2019, the EU represented India's largest trading partner with a total of approximately $78 billion worth of commercial relations.

And then again in 2020, India and the EU signed a joint roadmap to strengthen their strong economic ties in strategic sectors such as climate change, human rights, research and security. However, as you can probably imagine, relations with the EU and the West in general have become more complicated since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February of 2022. While Russia's choice to invade Ukraine and squander the geopolitical balances in Eurasia is a factor of concern for both the EU and India, India proved to be way more cautious in condemning the invasion and aligning to the international sanctions. India went as far, for instance, as to abstain from the UN resolution to officially centre Russia at the General Assembly. However, once again, India's plan to become the next bridge between the geopolitical powers of the world is proving to be a success.

While the US wanted to sanction India as well for its collaborative ties with Russia, Australia vetoed the resolution as a member of the Quad Cooperation Agreement. You see, so many ties and so many friends arguably make your position untouchable, and this is a role that can grant you great bargaining power, giving the Indian Prime Minister Modi the confidence to, at the same time, go meet Putin in person and tell him to finally put an end to the war. But that's it for this video, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next 1.