One of the main things regarding instability indices in today’s world is that they don’t consider the instability in neighbourhood. Take for example, Lebanon. The government in Lebanon is rock solid; no problem. But, can it survive the scare if Syria collapses completely? All this points out to focussing over a safer neighbourhood first and everything else later - a country’s foreign policy should aim at it’s territorial integrity, safer borders and economic well being primarily. The role of an international policeman or an international arbitrator comes only after this. In an area where there is one behemoth and many midgets, the hard fact is that India will have to be the big brother for all these countries surrounding it - help them in their economic and military succour without looking for returns. After all, developing these countries aids India in two different ways - strategic depth in case of an invasion whose probability of occurence is zero and widened scope of investment. In this regard, does it make sense to create a new neighbourhood affairs ministry dealing with the countries India interacts as neighbours? It doesn’t mean that those countries border India. Take for example, Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a de jure border with India but no de facto borders. But, it is more culturally integrated with India than many of the countries. Or for that matter, Iran, separated by Pakistan.
1. Create a new Neighbourhood Affairs Ministry with MoS portfolios in Defence, Finance and Foreign Affairs acting as a liasion with this ministry.
2. Maintain a Belligerent Nations List. This is applicable not just for Neighbourhood Affairs, but for the whole of Foreign Affairs Ministry
3. Allocate, say, 5% of India’s annual income to Neighbourhood countries - 50% to be transferred to the exchequer directly and 50% to be allocated to development activities funded and carried out by India. Distribution of money to the countries is to be based on a formula, with no country getting more than 20% of the total allocated sum. Any venture India takes up, it should contain a minimum of 30% Indian workforce and the balance from the home country.
4. If a country, say China, treats it as alms by India, first try to convince it as a goodwill amount towards a neighbour and if they still don’t bend, hold it in ae emergency corpus.
4. Any country in the Belligerent Countries List will not get the money. It’s share will be diverted for domestic use.
5. Exploration of an open border system with these countries in a case-by-case basis. Technically, there shouldn’t be any issue whatsoever regarding Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Mauritius today. We already have the same with Nepal and Bhutan; even, open borders with Bangladesh and Maldives can be explored.
1. Create a new Neighbourhood Affairs Ministry with MoS portfolios in Defence, Finance and Foreign Affairs acting as a liasion with this ministry.
2. Maintain a Belligerent Nations List. This is applicable not just for Neighbourhood Affairs, but for the whole of Foreign Affairs Ministry
3. Allocate, say, 5% of India’s annual income to Neighbourhood countries - 50% to be transferred to the exchequer directly and 50% to be allocated to development activities funded and carried out by India. Distribution of money to the countries is to be based on a formula, with no country getting more than 20% of the total allocated sum. Any venture India takes up, it should contain a minimum of 30% Indian workforce and the balance from the home country.
4. If a country, say China, treats it as alms by India, first try to convince it as a goodwill amount towards a neighbour and if they still don’t bend, hold it in ae emergency corpus.
4. Any country in the Belligerent Countries List will not get the money. It’s share will be diverted for domestic use.
5. Exploration of an open border system with these countries in a case-by-case basis. Technically, there shouldn’t be any issue whatsoever regarding Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Mauritius today. We already have the same with Nepal and Bhutan; even, open borders with Bangladesh and Maldives can be explored.
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