India-NATO alliance – Why India Should think about it?
Should India join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)? India in recent years has broken many presumed political taboos in its foreign policy, but talking to NATO is not one of them.
What is NATO?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization formally known as NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 North American and European countries. Its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
What is the Objective of the NATO?
The main Objective of the NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members by political and military means. It also aims collective defence at the heart of the Alliance and creates a spirit of solidarity and cohesion among its members.
What are the significance of NATO?
- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 30 countries that border the North Atlantic Ocean. The Alliance includes the United States, most European Union members, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Turkey.
- Politically, NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
- Military, NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO's founding treaty - Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.
Significance of NATO to India
- Article 5 of the NATO treaty held that an attack against a member nation of the NATO would be considered to be an attack against all the members of the alliance and would call for joint military action against the aggressor. This would create deterrence for China and Pakistan to attack India.
- During the Cold War, India’s refusal to join any of the Military bloc (NATO or Warsaw pact led by the USSR) was premised on its non-alignment.
- An India-NATO dialogue would simply mean having regular contact with a military alliance, most of whose members are well-established partners of India.
- Engagement with NATO, India could facilitate productive developments against terrorism, changing geopolitics, the evolving nature of military conflict, the role of emerging military technologies, and new military doctrines.
Arguments against India-NATO Alliance
- NATO members have conflicting opinions on how to share the military burden and strike the right balance between NATO and the EU’s quest for an independent military role. Further, NATO members disagree on policy related to Russia, the Middle East, and China.
- The Idea of Non-alignment after the Cold War years has little relevance. For example, after the Cold War years, NATO built partnerships with many neutral and non-aligned states.
- For the European and NATO members to play any role in the Indo-Pacific, they need partners like India, Australia, and Japan.
- If India wants to draw Russia into discussions on the Indo-Pacific then, engagement with NATO is significant. Because, NATO has regular consultations with both Russia and China.
- Russia and China have intensive bilateral engagement with Europe, India cannot afford to miss out.