India’s recent efforts in space exploration are a good reflection of the country’s diplomatic push as an ambitious rising power.
Indian officials have advocated support for a multipolar world order in which New Delhi is seen as integral to the global solution. In space exploration, as in many other areas, the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is clear. Even as the world’s most populous country strives to meet the basic needs of its people, the world would be a fairer place if India took a leadership role. needs.
That aggressiveness on the world stage is a central message of Mr. Modi’s campaign to seek re-election for a third term early next year. He has frequently merged his image with India’s rise as an economic, diplomatic and technological powerhouse.
“India has a very rich history in the space sector, thanks to scientists,” Modi said after the moon launch of Chandrayaan-3 last month. “This wonderful mission will carry our nation’s hopes and dreams.”
India is aiming to become the fourth country to achieve a moon landing after the United States, the Soviet Union and China, and the first in the lunar Antarctic region.
Much of India’s foreign policy in recent decades has been shaped by a delicate balancing act between the United States and Russia as it grapples with an increasingly aggressive China on its borders. The two countries’ militaries have been locked in a stalemate in the Himalayas for the past two years, and vulnerability to a Chinese threat is a major factor in India’s calculations.
Common grievances with Beijing only lead to increased cooperation between the United States and India, including in space, where China is establishing itself as a direct competitor to the United States. Russia’s failure to land on the moon days before India’s success was the latest sign of Moscow’s struggles as a space power.
On the day India attempted to land on the moon, Modi was in South Africa for a meeting of a group of nations known as the BRICS. Much attention will be focused on whether Modi will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of his summit, but this will be the first proper two-way meeting between the two leaders since the deadly military skirmish in 2020. It will be an international meeting.
Bharat Karnad, Emeritus Professor of National Security Studies at the Center for Policy Studies in New Delhi, said India’s cost-effective approach to space exploration has made India “a choice for many countries to launch low-orbit communications satellites. It is,” he said.
But Mr. Karnad said Chandrayaan-3’s potential success comes at a particularly critical time in the country’s rise and Mr. Modi “will more confidently assert India’s national interests on the world stage.” It said it could benefit from leveraging India’s scientific capabilities for ”