The topic Will India join NATO Plus has always been under great debate. And recently the USA’s proposal to India regarding membership in NATO Plus has again pushed this topic further to television debates.
People are curious whether India will join NATO Plus to counter Chinese aggression or remain neutral and not go with any military alliance.
Today in this article we will be discussing NATO’s Plan for expansion and answer the question “Will India join NATO Plus?” Furthermore, In this article we will see what India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaisankar replied to the USA’s proposal of making India a NATO Plus Member.
What is NATO?
NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, It was formed in 1949 after World War 2 by the USA, Canada, Finland and other Western countries to protect against a potential threat from USSR.
The objectives of NATO include the transfer of military technologies among NATO countries and also include collective military, navy and airforce exercises. All the countries get NATO Article 5 protection.
NATO contains various articles under which all countries are bound together by the military alliance. One such article is Article 5 of NATO which in simple words it states that if any country gets attacked by any of the nation then Article 5 will be activated and it will be considered as an attack on all the NATO nations and all the NATO nations will collectively attack that country.
What is NATO Plus?
Nato Plus is a group of all NATO countries plus five more countries which include Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and South Korea. The main objective is to boost defence corporations among countries.
The thing to be noted is that the countries having “NATO Plus” does not get Article 5 protection of NATO. The Article 5 protection is limited to NATO countries only.
NATO is a fairly old alliance and now trying to expand its operations in other countries also by giving them NATO Plus status.
NATO Plus is trying to expand in Indo-pacific and thus the US Congressional Committee on the Strategic Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party proposed India to become a NATO Plus nation.
Will India join NATO Plus?
Now the question might be wandering in your mind will India join NATO Plus to counter the potential Chinese migration and be somewhat safer side or India will maintain its non-alliance policy and not go with any of the military alliances?
The answer to the question is already given by the External Affairs Minister of India Dr S. Jaishankar. In a press conference, Dr Jaishanakar clearly stated that
“One of the challenges of a changing world is how do you get people to accept and adjust to those changes, Even today not just with this committee I’ll see this you know in the analysis of various kinds and writings of people a lot of Americans still have that NATO treaty construct in their heads, so any situation they deal with they use that like it seems almost like that’s the only uh sort of template with which or only Viewpoint with which they look at the world the reality and that is not a template that applies to India“
Which clearly means that India does not believe in an alliance system and India wants to maintain its strategic autonomy. So it is very clear that India is not planning to join NATO Plus or any of the military alliances whether it is with Russia or with the USA.
Pros and Cons of India Joining NATO Plus
We have got our answer on Will India join NATO Plus, now moving forward our analysis on what will be the pros and cons of India joining NATO as a plus country.
Pros of India Joining NATO Plus
- Transfer of Military Technology and Intelligence: The First and foremost benefit of India joining NATO Plus will be that India will have access to the latest technology and better military intelligence. The transfer of military technologies with the West will become much easier for India.
- Better Coordination with the West: If India joins NATO Plus then it will be easier to coordinate with the West for various causes, especially in terms of military. The defence forces of all the NATO countries can have combined exercises for better coordination.
- Counter possible Chinese aggression: If India joins NATO Plus then New Delhi will have better military technology and coordination which will help India to very easily tackle the Chinese threat.
- Better Relationship with the West: If India chooses to join NATO Plus then it will ultimately improve India’s relationship with the West opening doors to future coordination in other economic activities other than the military.
Cons of India Joining NATO Plus
- Breaks non-alliance policy: India follows a non-alliance policy when it comes to military alliances and joining NATO plus will make India its long policy of strategic autonomy.
- Might hurt the relationship with Russia: Russia is India’s long and time-tested friend who always helped India whenever needed and everyone knows USA and Russia are great rivals for a long time. If India joins any Western alliance like NATO plus it is very much possible that it hurt the long relationship with Russia. And if due to this by any chance Russia gets more and more inclined towards China, it will not be a very good sign for the India as well as the whole West.
- India’s Sovereignty might hurt: If India joins NATO plus then there will be NATO operations on the lands of India and which might hurt India’s sovereignty as a democratic nation.
- Polarisation of world order: The biggest problem of this alliance system is that it creates a polarization of power. If India joins NATO there is a high possibility that China forms another military alliance with Russia and other countries like Pakistan which is not a very good sign for world order. This will divide countries into groups which rises the possibility of a major war on the globe.
So this was our analysis of will India join NATO Plus. I hope you could extract some useful and great information from the article. Subscribe to notifications for further updates!
