A Brief Analysis Of India 's Central Asian Policy After The Cold War

To be a world-class power is India’s strategic objective since independence. AsIndia’s "extended neighbors", central Asia plays a big role in achieving India’sambition. Central Asia provides external security, important political support andeconomic development opportunities for India.Central Asia policy is an important part of India’s foreign policy. India’s CentralAsia policy reflects its diplomatic track. With the enhancement of the strength, India’sinvolvement in Central Asia experienced a process of "reactive","wait and see", then"full attention". The focus point of cooperation begins from recovering andstrengthening contacts between India and Central Asia, then transferring to fightagainst extremism and terrorism, and then cooperate fully in the political, economic,security and cultural aspects after the911terrorism attack. To maintain the traditionalsecurity, ensure the interests of energy security and counter-terrorism and strengtheneconomic cooperation is India’s main interest demands in Central Asia. However, inthe pursuit of these goals, India is subject to the constraints of Indian domestic factors,regional factors (Central Asian countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan) and the Great Powers(USA, Russia and China). Lack of clear policy, agenda control and rule shapingcapability makes India play a very limited role in Central Asia for a long a period oftime.China and India have similar economic and security interests in Central Asia.However, under the dominance of USA and Russia in Central Asia, India’s threat toChina is very limited, and in some areas China has advantage s compared with India.China should adhere to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, use economiccomplementarity to strengthen economic and trade exchanges, and rely on theShanghai Cooperation Organization to safeguard regional stability, make its owncontribution to regional peace and development.