Strategic Partnerships and Regional Security Architectures: Delineating India’s Peace and Security Approach in the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain

Abstract

The paper is empirical research that reviews India’s peace and security policy and developments from 2014 till 2019 towards regional peace and security. Taking an overview of New Delhi’s approach towards Indo-Pacific using maritime engagements provides a crucial insight into this. A reading of the first tenure of maritime trends suggests that New Delhi has been taking a two-pronged approach: while establishing strategic partnerships at the bilateral level with countries that include military exercises and defence related trade. On the other hand, India has shown an increasing interest in developing ‘regional security architectures’ at the regional level as its multilateral preference of engagement with the like-minded countries having common regional interests and objectives. Development of the region in terms of infrastructure- building, connectivity and addressing common threats to peace and development jointly has been country’s approach at the multilateral level. It further overviews the emerging geopolitical developments and security issues that has its imprint on the development of Asian maritime security architecture. Lastly, the paper concludes that even though bilateral engagements are leading to deliverables, it is under the larger ambit of the multilaterals that India is developing normative and conceptual maritime security frameworks that India should seek proactive arrangements in the coming years.

Keywords: Asian Security Architectures; Bilateralism; Joint Maritime Exercises; Look East Policy; Multilateralism.