The Indian political establishment is brought up on the notion that Europe and Asia are different.
India is hardly interested Eurasia ideology unlike Indo-Pacific.
What is the ideology of Indo- Pacific?
Marine bio-geographers use the Indo-Pacific to describe the large stretch of tropical waters from the east coast of Africa to the Western Pacific that has many common features.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who imagined the Indo-Pacific. Australia was quick to adopt it.
India along with Indonesia dreamt of Asian unity and founded the non-aligned movement in the middle of the last century, was enthusiastic in its embrace of the Indo-Pacific.
It was President Donald Trump who ended American ambivalence by consistently using the term “Indo-Pacific”.
What is Eurasia ideology?
For geologists, Eurasia refers to a tectonic plate that lies under much of what we know as Europe and Asia.
In political term Eurasia is supposed to represent a unique cultural, spiritual and geographic space that is neither East nor West.
For many in Russia, Eurasia invokes either the memories of the vast Russian empire or rekindles nostalgia for the Soviet Union.
There is a Eurasia Division in India’s ministry of external affairs that deals with a significant part of the post-Soviet space.
What instance proved India’s aversion from Eurasia?
Recently a consequential event held in Budapest, Hungary which was went entirely unreported in India.
It was the annual summit of an organisation called C-CEEC that promotes cooperation between China and 16 Central and East European Countries.
It is more popularly known as “sixteen plus one”.
That India is hardly interested in this new forum underlines the problem it has in dealing with a changing Eurasia.
What are the concerns for India on Eurasia?
At present China is breaking down the idea that Europe and Asia are two different continents.
It is about the expanding Chinese economic and political influence in spaces that were once dominated by either the West or Russia.
China is exporting large amounts of capital for infrastructure development, drawing its economies east ward, and creating new political groupings.
It also widens the strategic options for Central European states. Fed up with bullying from both Germany and Russia, the Central Europeans are quite happy to join hands with China.
India’s stand of irreconcilable tension between “Europe and Asia” is becoming unsustainable as China’s massive Silk Road Initiative begins to integrate Europe with Asia.
If the concept of “Indo-Pacific” survives the Trump Administration, the existence of Eurasia is a little more complex.
What measures India needs to take?
India has now revamped its ideology and puts itself back in play in the maritime world by accepting the Indo-Pacific idea.
But Delhi is yet to come to grips with continental Eurasia.
India needs to focus as it is on bilateral relations with France, Germany and Russia.
At the same time India needs to maintain a balance between the European Union and Central Europe.
Correcting this imbalance is the first step towards a more purposeful Indian engagement with Eurasia.
