Thread 3/7:
Multilateralism

Must India’s foreign affairs strategy change?
S. Menon, India (Brookings)
Alyssa Ayres, USA (CFR)
Justin Vaisse, France (PPF)
Dino P. Djalal, Indonesia (FPCI)
Rory Medcalf, Australia (ANU)

Transcript + video: https://www.brookings.edu/events/webinar-must-indias-foreign-affairs-strategy-change/

S Menon: “we have seen the effective end of multilateralism. If you look at the difference between the way the G20 responded to the 2008 financial crisis in April 2009, and the way it's responded now to the pandemic, this is night and day.” 2

S Menon:
“we’re in for a poorer, meaner and smaller world. Poorer bc the economic prospects are dim. Meaner because we can see the selfish turning inward and the failure of multilateralism. And smaller because the fragmentation of politics and economics has accelerated.” 3

J Vaisse:
“let's not confuse strategic autonomy and attention to sovereignty with introversion and either unilateralism or reserve vis-a-vis multilateral initiatives, which are really critical to provide not only for world peace but also for the well-being of Indian citizens” 4

J Vaisse: "We can emphasize sovereignty, self-reliance and strategic autonomy but that won't solve the question of finding and distributing the [COVID] vaccine. And we know that no country will be safe until all countries are safe so we really need to work together." 5

J Vaisse: "If you look at 15 largest GDP powers, three are quite ambivalent about multilateralism [US, China and Russia]. For the others, frankly, they are all countries that like multilateralism because it works and because it's necessary for shaping their environment." 6

J Vaisse: "We Europeans don't like multilateralism because it's nice and because it's a Kantian view of the world. We like it because it works." 7

J Vaisse: "India has not signed [Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace] and that's something that we note with regret and sorrow because India is so important and could really make a difference in signing and giving its weight to this" 8

J Vaisse:
"outer space is under-governed, under-regulated. [India's] anti-satellite weapon test of last year, for example, which created debris, it was a bit disappointing, to be honest, because China had done that 10 years ago and India could have done it better." 9

A Ayres: "a change in government in the USA would see a return to the idea of the importance of institutions of global governance – something that the Trump administration has not been at all interested in. And that would provide a strong platform for US-India cooperation" 10

S Menon:
"when both the greatest powers in the world are revisionist and seem to have turned their back on at least traditional multilateralism, my answer is, issue-based coalitions of the willing. Pick an issue that matters, find those who agree with you and work on it. 11

S Menon:
"India is not going to be a wholesale provider of those [public, global] goods, not in this condition, not today, but we’ll work with partners where we find them. Strategic autonomy in that sense is not autarky, is not isolation, is not cutting ourselves off." 12 / end