New Delhi, March 11 As India rises, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must create a regional and security doctrine that is commensurate with India’s economic infrastructure and its role in the world. PM Modi – already India's third longest-serving Prime Minister – has likely contributed more to India's infrastructure development than all his predecessors combined, and has navigated the country through several challenges, a report highlights.
Writing in The Sunday Guardian, Michael Rubin, Director of Policy Analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, stated that when PM Modi came to power in 2014, India was the 10th largest economy in the world, and now it is the fourth largest.
He mentioned that India's adversaries, including China and Pakistan, will not accept its rise quietly and will try to constrain New Delhi through asymmetric means.
"These challenges suggest that, as India rises, Modi must establish a regional doctrine and a security doctrine that is commensurate with India’s economic infrastructure and its role in the world. In short, it is time for a Modi Doctrine similar to the US Monroe Doctrine. President James Monroe declared that the United States would be the preeminent power in the Western hemisphere, and that the United States would not tolerate European militaries and interference in the region," Rubin wrote.
Rubin stated that a "Modi doctrine" might similarly protect the countries of the Indian Ocean region from the predatory ambitions of China.
"A Modi Doctrine would not impede freedom of navigation and lawful commerce. But Chinese debt diplomacy in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, and its attempts to bribe and co-opt politicians in the Maldives and Mauritius, aims at neo-colonialism. China might pursue Belt-and-Road ports and port facilities in Colombo, Hambantota, Chittagong, Kyaukphyu, and Bagamoyo, but India should use all its diplomatic and economic leverage to extract the Chinese. Nor are Chinese-funded port projects the only inroads of Chinese exploitation and imperial ambition," he wrote in The Sunday Guardian.
Highlighting that Chinese fishing fleets poach fishing beds, violate exclusive economic zones, and pursue unsustainable practices, Rubin opined that the Indian Navy should help defend all Indian Ocean basin countries from Chinese predation.
"More than 280 crore people living in countries bordering the Indian Ocean will depend on the security that India can provide. Chinese ships might pass through its waters, but they should have no base or dual-use military facility in the region. Regional security and the sovereignty and independence of small states require India to be the paramount power," he wrote.