NEW DELHI: In quick succession, India has come up with two long-pending documents delineating its objectives for the polar realms of the Arctic and Antarctica. On March 17, Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Science, released India’s crucial Arctic Policy, aptly titled, ‘India and the Arctic: Building a Partnership for Sustainable Development.’ On April 1, Dr Jitendra Singh introduced another impending legislation, The Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022, in Lok Sabha. The back-to-back developments signify a never-before swiftness in India’s strategy-making for the icy poles of our planet.
India’s science diplomacy has been the main driver of Arctic and Antarctic presence and operations over the past four decades. But recently, economic and political diplomacy has taken a lead role. Since 2017-18 India has regularly engaged with almost all Arctic littoral states bilaterally or multilaterally. It began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation in the Nordic Summit with the national leadership of the Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland—in Stockholm in April 2018. During the summit, India and the Nordic 5 did not directly discuss Arctic affairs but India did consolidate partnerships with them on Sustainable Development Goals, trade, climate change solutions, agriculture, public- and private-sector collaborations, academic exchange, health and life science, and smart cities. Additionally, India also used the summit to secure support from the Nordic countries for its permanent seat in the reformed United Nations Security Council. It is important to note that India has support for its permanent seat from all Eurasian Arctic coastal nations, including the largest, Russia.
In 2019, India was re-elected as an Observer to the Arctic Council—a multilateral of all Arctic littoral countries of Europe, Asia and North America. Not much has been written about India’s stellar contributions to the Arctic Migratory Birds Initiative (AMBI) of the Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Group. The AMBI is an international project to preserve the flyways (flying paths) of migratory birds traveling to the Arctic in northern summers and migrating to tropical regions of South America, Africa and Asia during northern winters. In February 2020, the Indian government made a deep impression on this significant Arctic ecological effort by hosting the Convention of Migratory Species under the 13th United Nations Environmental Programme Conference of Parties (UNEP COP-13) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The UNEP COP-13 released the Gandhinagar Declaration, an action plan for preventing the killing and trade of migratory birds and formulating ecological conservation measures in the Arctic and tropical regions where the birds flock. Through the Gandhinagar Declaration, India has consolidated its image of a constructive nation working in the interest of the ecologically sensitive Arctic region. Furthermore, this significant development, unfortunately, shadowed by the COVID-19 global pandemic that transpired around the same period, shows India’s strategy to transform the Arctic Council’s plan into a UN declaration with an evident Indian signature in the title—Gandhinagar.
India’s role as a prudent and environmentally conscientious economic power can be of immense significance in global polar politics. Such a position offers India support among the Arctic littoral states. In contrast, in the Antarctic, a global commons, the embodiment provides India immense latitude to international voice regulations on protecting the Antarctic environment. A national Antarctic legislation was necessary to prepare India for a higher echelon of global leadership.
Like every other ministerial machinery, India’s enormous scientific apparatus celebrates the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav this year. As part of celebrations, much forward-thinking and goal-setting is happening for the period, known as Amrit Kaal, between 2022 and 2047, the centennial year of India’s independence. The Indian Antarctic Bill of 2022 has come at the right time as, in 2048, the Antarctic Treaty will be up for review. The bill, therefore, has laid a plinth over the foundational activities that have happened from the 1980s until today. On this plinth, the bill will give India greater operational autonomy and an increased role for domestic industry in communications, air transport, shipping, fishing and tourism, to Antarctica. The bill sets a regulatory towline for their operations in terms of environmental conservation, upkeeping the wilderness and aesthetics of the Antarctic environments, waste management, permits and authorization to enter and operate in Antarctica, damage liabilities and creation of a policy oversight committee nominated by the central government. Large sections of the text in the legislation are congruous with India’s commitment to the Antarctic Treaty, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. The codes set in the legislation will be necessary for India to responsibly increase its footprint in Antarctica in the last 26 years of this iteration of the Antarctic Treaty.
India’s aspirations for the Arctic and Antarctic are as relevant as those of Western players in the Indo-Pacific. By codifying the policy and legislation discussed here, India is now preparing to be an expeditionary player, a stark difference from its earlier hesitancy to operate beyond the immediate sea lanes of communications. India’s proactiveness on these fronts is extremely necessary, given that within this decade, India may become the third-largest economy on the planet. The higher positioning in the global power pedestal gives it greater responsibility to manage decorum in the global commons and geographies critical to the planet’s wellbeing. And by that rationale, India is preparing to shape a consensual iteration of the Antarctic Treaty that will come into force after 2048.
India’s constructive role in Antarctic governance will be vital for its presence in the Arctic. Such a role need not be seen as self-restraint but a robust counter to territorial claimants like China, which considers the Arctic and Antarctic expanded domains for influence and dominance. India is not fighting over claims constrained by the Antarctic Treaty since 1948, nor is it a new claimant like China. India’s middle path position is essential to preserve the sanctity of the polar realms and nations’ interests respectful of global peace and orderliness.
When there is immense dissonance over the notion of rule-based order, India’s leadership will be responsible for devising a more globally harmonious concept of global order. The Vedic idea of Ṛta can become a path-breaking driver of order for operating in the Arctic and Antarctic realms. Ṛta, loosely interpreted as the rhythmic functioning of ethical, natural and renunciation order, can become a core driver of international co-existence in the global commons. But to make the presence of such a deep philosophy felt in the comity of nations, India needs to make its presence felt in global geoeconomic and geopolitical machinations. In that sense, the decision to publish the Arctic Policy and legalize the Indian Antarctic Act is a significant step ahead.
(The author is a consultant to the Government of India on space, science, technology and innovation. Views expressed in this article are personal.)
[/vc_column][/vc_row][/tdc_zone]
