NATOs markers

In its just concluded summit over the weekend in Lisbon,Portugal,the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has laid down three markers of consequence for Indias foreign and security policies. The first is about Afghanistan. The US European allies have endorsed the Obama administrations timeline to significantly limit a combat role in Afghanistan by 2014. Yet NATO has promised that it will not abandon Kabul. It has signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai for long-term security assistance to Afghanistan.

Second,the summit endorsed Obamas plans to reset Western ties with Russia. Moscow,after tilting towards Washington in the 1990s,was displeased at NATOs refusal to respect Russias national interests and began to assert itself against the West in the last decade. Severely weakened by the recent financial crisis,the West has had every incentive to make up with Russia. The NATO summit has attempted precisely that by offering more honourable terms. Moscow,in turn,has promised to further develop the Central Asian routes into Afghanistan that provide a valuable alternative to NATOs current dependence on Pakistan. Even more important,Russia has agreed to cooperate with NATO in developing a Europe-wide system to defend against the threat of missile proliferation in the Middle East. Until now Moscow has been adamant in its opposition to the US plans to build a missile defence system by saying that the West was targeting Russia. In deference to Moscow,India too has tended to curb its initial enthusiasm for missile defence.

As NATO and Russia move towards cooperation on missile defence,India has no political reason to not build a robust and long overdue military space programme. The continuing tensions between the US and Russia in the last decade had constrained Indias room for geopolitical manoeuvring and Delhi has every reason to welcome NATOs efforts to end that needless discord. The expanding security cooperation between the West and Russia in our Western neighbourhood means India too must begin the formal engagement with NATO that it has deliberately avoided until now. Delhi can only benefit from a dialogue with NATO as India begins to redefine its Afghan strategy and recalibrates its position on military space issues.