India - UK relationship and a change in strategy

PoliceWala

India and UK have had a complex relationship post Independence one which was further hurt when India chose the French Rafale jets over it's British counterparts. We all have also heard about the furore in Britain over the question of giving aid to India.

In the present scenario, where UK has been almost reduced to a sidekick of USA combined with the potential economic mess that UK is dealing with, what should be India's strategy towards UK? With Asia clearly being the focus of economic and military growth in this century, Is India not better off focusing it's attention with respect to the look East policy? The tiger economies are booming, South Korea is an economic success story, Japan is among India's best allies, Myanmaar is an unexplored goldmine - Should it not be prudent to invest and deal with such entities?

Discuss.

mach24

@PolicWala.. These are my thoughts on the topic based on whatever little knowledge I have.

OK I dont think India-UK is very complex, the way I see it, it is just a case where UK is trying to get back its lost pride. UK is trying to assert itself as a major global player without actually having the required tools. I say this based on some observations.

1-I heard that in the Afghanistan deal UK asked not to be left out of the talks, citing historical relations.
2-wrt India it is trying hard to establish a good bilateral reln, though ending up giving mixed signals. Again UK is playing the historical spl reln card.

Regarding the cutting of aid, it is speculated that it points to an economic crisis in UK coz,
1- UK cut the aid when there was no substantial improvement to be seen in the causes for which it used to send the aid.
2- They have not redirected the aid to other more needy countries(not very sure about this).

Then as far as your query regarding look east policies is concerned, India has already made a start in that direction, which can be seen from its commitmtnts made in ASEAN for FTA in services and Infra, which will benefit India in a huge manner as it is one of the leading service providers in asia(not sure globally, guess USA is there). India has also made commitments to achieve 100$ bn target by 2015 I guess. And then there are a couple of bilateral FTAs.

So in the present situation India is doing a lot of right moves, which are in the best intersts of our country.
UK is trying to do its best to regain its pride and economy, which is totally correct from its perspective.

Any kind of value addition and fine tuning is appreciated.(esp from our seniors)

mach24

Remembered a couple of things.

1- UK is supporting India's civil nuclear program ( so is france so this can again be taken as a reactionary measure).
2- They have agreed to share the know-how of some technology ( nuclear? or some other, dont know properly:( )

These things are very much in India's interest, and which need to be taken seriously as not many are capable and willing to extend such support.

karthikP

A primer on UK Prime Minister's visit to India. You can make a couple of points form here as you hear the words come out from the horse's mouth :-)

karthikP

UK PM's signing of multi billion deals with India in defense & trade. Also discussed terrorism with respect to Pakistan.

1. Hawk aircraft agreement
2. Civil Nuclear Power
3. Banking & Retail
4. Security - locally: Commonwealth games security; Regionally : Afghanistan & Globally: UNSC


Also hear what Indian PM has to say.

mach24

@karthikP
the videos look cool!
(kinda regretting posting my views as they'll look so dumb now :P )

Thanks!

Neyawn

Haha @abhinrao24 KarthiP makes us all look bad :-)

He is an old member who 1) posts high quality content 2) doesn't take BS 3)uses Videos a lot.

mach24

Haha @abhinrao24 KarthiP makes us all look bad :-)

He is an old member who 1) posts high quality content 2) doesn't take BS 3)uses Videos a lot.

Agreed:)

mach24

Well can we put the gist of Indo- UK reln based on 2nd video in one line as-
"UK needs India more than India needs UK"

Or is it that I'm making a hasty conclusion, coz..
Thats exactly what was in my mind while I wrote my post.

Neyawn

Lol. @abhinrao24 You need to watch a couple of documentaries on World History. You will realise, as I did ( thanks to Dr. Shaleen sharing those videos with me) that Western Powers have a thing for pepping up 3rd world countries when they need them by their side, and shun them when their work is over.

Look at Pakistan. Under Musharraf, Pakistan was no better. Still USA, pepped it up as America's biggest ally outside of Europe, outside of the Allied forces of WW II. They did not take too long to give Pakistan the boot either.

PM Cameron will humour India for now. And will backtrack on matters that really concern us, with respect to World Politics - Kashmir, WTO & Doha Round, UNSC Permanent Seat etc.

mach24

Lol. @abhinrao24 You need to watch a couple of documentaries on World History. You will realise, as I did ( thanks to Dr. Shaleen sharing those videos with me) that Western Powers have a thing for pepping up 3rd world countries when they need them by their side, and shun them when their work is over.

Look at Pakistan. Under Musharraf, Pakistan was no better. Still USA, pepped it up as America's biggest ally outside of Europe, outside of the Allied forces of WW II. They did not take too long to give Pakistan the boot either.

PM Cameron will humour India for now. And will backtrack on matters that really concern us, with respect to World Politics - Kashmir, WTO & Doha Round, UNSC Permanent Seat etc.

After reading this post my views just got reaffirmed, atleast for the near future( dont know whether you really wanted to reaffirm those) but now I also feel that we need to be more careful and not take things for granted, nor should we be over dependent on their support.

Regarding Pak, I firmly believe India cannot be compared with Pak. Although we share a common past till 1947, we have evolved as almost completely opposite poles in regard to our temperament, political stability of our nations, economies... list might go on, so I shall stop.

I had a couple of doubts too,
1. USA(NATO) is supporting Pak for the moment, supposedly mainly for the sake of safe withdrawal from Afghanistan via Pak. Will the USA(NATO) change its stand towards Pak drastically or substantially after troop withdrawal is complete?
2. What is Commonwealth games security? Why has it been mentioned under security? so imp?

PS: I will watch as many videos as I can