India and The Arctic States

In this chapter the authors focus on the engagement in the region and policies of the major Arctic States, the United States of America, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland and discusses the main aspects of India’s relations with the Arctic countries since India’s independence. The chapter aims to understand the interests of the Arctic states in developing the Arctic, an analysis of their policies and plans and their relationship with India since all this has implications for India’s Arctic engagement. As described in this chapter, by adopting a more realistic foreign policy in the twenty-first century, India has established strategic and robust commercial relations with all the Arctic States. This contributed to India becoming an observer state at the Arctic Council in 2013. India has a strategic partnership with the United States in Quad; the USA is a major trading partner and the only G7 country with which India has a positive trade balance. Notwithstanding, it continues to share another special and privileged strategic partnership with Russia, a long-standing friendly country from the days of the Soviet Union. Its most crucial partnership as far as scientific research is concerned is with Norway. India aims to contribute to responsible stewardship of the Arctic region by sharing scientific expertise on climate change and contributing to Arctic governance, including protecting the Arctic environment. Simultaneously, it aims to invest in ecologically permissible resource exploitation projects of Arctic states as a hedge for future energy requirements and the benefits of advanced technology. Its relations with the Arctic littoral countries are crucial to achieving these objectives, and the chapter concludes that India’s foreign policy endeavours have been successful in this endeavour.