Lan Jianxue, Lin Duo: India's attitude towards NATO is more cautious

In June 2022, the NATO summit ended in Madrid, Spain. The summit put forward the fourth "strategic concept" in the history of the organization, namely "NATO 2022 Strategic Concepts", which points to Russia to Russia. With Georgia's open door, the four Asia -APE member states of Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand were invited to participate in the meeting. It was high -profile that it would increase the intensity of the Asia -Pacific affairs and introduced a series of poor soldiers. The Madrid Summit can be called a major breakthrough in the expansion of NATO outward after the Cold War and stepping up the process of expansion.

As an important country in the Asia -Pacific region, India's response to the NATO Madrid Summit is subtle. In fact, since last year, Indian public opinion has begun to discuss the interaction between India and NATO. In March 2021, the "Index Times" published an article entitled "NATO: the next geopolitical destination of India", "Indians should not be naive that they really do not really unite the roads." "Too strategic" to block the key part of the Chinese strategy, India is slightly dissatisfied with the "omissions" of themselves outside the NATO Summit. The "disguised punishment" of firmness, anti -Chinese posture, and incomplete stance.

In recent years, the United States has evaluated India's value to the United States and the United States and India based on the degree of cooperation of India under its "Indo -Pacific Strategy" framework. In fact, since Modi came to power in 2014, India has greatly adjusted its foreign policy routes that did not associate alliance and adopted a series of pro -American policy measures. India has accelerated closer to the United States from the aspects of military sales defense, the "Indo -Pacific Strategy", the "US -Japan -India -Australia" mechanism, and economic and trade investment. In the past ten years, the United States and India have signed three basic security agreements, such as the "Memorandum of Logistics Exchange Agreement", "Communication Compatibility and Security Agreement", and "Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement". However, even if India is trying to move closer to the United States and expressed loyalty to the United States, the United States is still reluctant to truly accept India. It always feels that India is not "obedient" and not enough to have a heart with the United States. Therefore, the Bayeng government started another stove outside the "US-Japan India-Australia" mechanism and engaged in a "Anglo-Saxon" race and unusual religious "Opus Alliance", which highlighted the strategic doubts of the United States to India.

After the outbreak of the Russian and Ukraine conflict, the United States and its allies took turns to put pressure on India to force India to adopt a stronger position against Russia and abandon the "Indian -Russia Special and Privilege Strategic Partnership." Bloomberg News in the United States even directly commented that the United States should not have fantasies about India and look forward to the strategic autonomy of Indian political elites to abandon their careful guardians over the years. The United States and its NATO allies have not invited India to participate in the NATO summit. Behind it is mainly the United States' dissatisfaction with India's rejection of condemnation and sanction in Russia to Ukraine's special military operations.

At present, India lacks actual conditions and motivations to join NATO, but it may cooperate with NATO if necessary. The Indian public's discussion of NATO is very differentiated. The Indian strategic research community is cautious about cooperation between India and NATO, but it does not rule out the possibility of "limited cooperation". Individual Indian media advocates that as NATO's steps to the Asia -Pacific steps accelerate, India should not rule out the possibility of "menu -style cooperation" based on issues with NATO and developing issues. Some Indian experts claim that India and NATO can discuss joint cooperation stances through regular dialogue mechanisms to exchange opinions on anti -terrorism and geopolitical situations. Others have claimed that India can establish the so -called "Indo -Pacific Sea Security Alliance" with NATO.

In the future, the level and degree of cooperation between India and NATO depends on how India's foreign policy evolves depends on how India evaluates its strategic independent orientation. In the future, the depth and breadth of India and NATO will still be relatively limited. India's attitude towards Russia and Indian China will make it scares on the issue of cooperation with NATO. In addition, since the establishment of NATO, it launched or involved in a series of regional conflicts and wars. NATO failed to manage relations with Russia and sponsoring war in Europe. India's long -term strategic doubts about the United States will also coordinate India to cooperate with NATO.

Generally speaking, the mainstream of the Indian diplomatic strategy will still be to make a profit and eat between the East and the West. In the framework of the strategic autonomy, India has a great dream of a great country. The price of unwillingness to be shuddered in the United States and bears its own strategic environment significantly worsening.

(Author Lan Jianxue Department of the Asia -Pacific Research Institute of China International Institute of International Issues; Scholar of the Asia -Pacific Research Institute of the China Institute of International Issues of China.

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