Official Photograph of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi
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By Prof. Purnendra Jain and Tridivesh Singh Maini*
Over the past year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it unequivocally clear that he favours states’ active participation and partnership in his development agenda through his stated policy of ‘cooperative federalism’. Not just in the domestic policy arena, he has now extended this partnership in the international arena through the involvement of states in promoting India’s broader interests abroad.
While the Modi government’s willingness to partner with states in the promotion of India’s interest overseas is a new toolkit in India’s foreign policy, Prime Minister Modi cannot be credited for inventing this wheel. It must be recognised that he certainly is the one who has acknowledged and promoted the importance of this actor and is trying to deploy this resource which other leaders before him failed to harness sufficiently, and carried out foreign policy in the conventional manner. As international relations today have become complex and multilayered, national governments alone do not possess adequate resources to effectively represent their countries’ interests and promote them overseas.
Promotion of ‘local interests’ overseas by sub-national units has today become a global phenomenon. Sub-national governments in the Western world and even in some Asian countries, including Japan and China, have vigorously pursued their economic and cultural interests throughTRADE
linkages, cultural exchanges and scientific cooperation through sister relationships and regular contacts at various levels. Some sub-national governments even pursue policies independently of their national governments such as Quebec in Canada. Some su-bnational units have represented their own local interest taking a different stance from their national governments. Okinawa Prefecture in Japan, for example, has represented its own local position in Washington independent of the policy stance held by the national government on the deployment of US troops in Japan.
linkages, cultural exchanges and scientific cooperation through sister relationships and regular contacts at various levels. Some sub-national governments even pursue policies independently of their national governments such as Quebec in Canada. Some su-bnational units have represented their own local interest taking a different stance from their national governments. Okinawa Prefecture in Japan, for example, has represented its own local position in Washington independent of the policy stance held by the national government on the deployment of US troops in Japan.
Far from being courageous enough to represent their interest overseas in competition with the national government, Indian states have been largely inactive in their international engagement even in non-controversial areas such as trade and cultural exchanges. As the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi was among a handful of chief ministers who began to recognise the importance ofCONNECTING their states to foreign countries in the pursuit of trade andINVESTMENT. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh has been another internationally active chief minister in India. Though states bordering Pakistan, like Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and the northeastern states bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar have emerged as stakeholders in neighbourhood policy, and this was recognized even by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, at times it was argued that states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in fact had a veto over India’s ties with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively.
their states to foreign countries in the pursuit of trade andINVESTMENT. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh has been another internationally active chief minister in India. Though states bordering Pakistan, like Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and the northeastern states bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar have emerged as stakeholders in neighbourhood policy, and this was recognized even by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, at times it was argued that states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in fact had a veto over India’s ties with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively.
In the economic sphere, states apart from Gujarat – such as Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have been organizing Investor summits with the aim of seeking foreign investment.
Modi is rightly trying to strengthen the partnership between the centre and states. The prime minister’s vision to make states’ partnership in promoting India’s interest overseas can be seen clearly both before and during his China visit. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was chosen by the Ministry of External Affairs to lead an Indian delegation in April.
Modi himself was accompanied by two chief ministers – Anandiben Patel (Gujarat) and Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra).
Not only did the chief ministers meet Chinese provincial leaders and potentialINVESTORSbut they were also part of the India-China State and Provincial Leaders Forum which shall be a dialogue between governors of Chinese provinces and chief ministers of Indian states. This dialogue is along the lines of the US-China Governors Forum which was begun in July 2011, and a host of issues – economic, environmental and pertaining to research and education are discussed . The India-China Provincial Leaders Forum seeks to expand, not just to be a forum for enhancing economic ties, but also strengthen people-to-people contact and cultural and educational ties. Besides, it will give a chance to Indian states and provinces to explore ties according to their complementarities as well as needs.
but they were also part of the India-China State and Provincial Leaders Forum which shall be a dialogue between governors of Chinese provinces and chief ministers of Indian states. This dialogue is along the lines of the US-China Governors Forum which was begun in July 2011, and a host of issues – economic, environmental and pertaining to research and education are discussed . The India-China Provincial Leaders Forum seeks to expand, not just to be a forum for enhancing economic ties, but also strengthen people-to-people contact and cultural and educational ties. Besides, it will give a chance to Indian states and provinces to explore ties according to their complementarities as well as needs.
During Modi’s visit agreements were also signed for twinning of one Indian state (Karnataka) and one Chinese province (Sichuan), and similarly between cities Chennai-Chongqing, Hyderabad (Telangana)-Qingdao (Shangdong) and Aurangabad (Maharashtra)–Dunhuang (Gansu). Twin city partnerships between US and China, such as the city of San Francisco and Shanghai, have been helpful not just for removing misunderstandings between citizens of both countries, but during the recession helped in drawing Chinese real estate and techINVESTMENTS into the US.
into the US.
It would also be important to point out, that it is not just Modi who understands the relevance of sub-national linkages. Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to India in September 2014 landed in Ahmedabad and an agreement for sister state-province partnership was signed between Gujarat and Guangdong, while an agreement for sister city partnership between Ahmedabad and Guangzhou was also signed. William Antholis in his book, Inside Out, India and China: Local Politics go Global (2014), states that one of the major similarities between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi is that they have been strong regional leaders. It was perhaps symbolic that while President Xi landed in Modi’s home state, the Indian prime minister landed in Xi’an (Shaanxi province) the hometown of the Chinese president.
Diplomacy today no longer starts and ends in national capital cities, nor is it the sole preserve of national leaders and national foreign affairs officials. Modi’s emphasis on sub-national relations during his China visit strongly gives this message. Hopefully, mechanisms such as the Provincial Leaders Forum will ensure that interactions between provinces help in creating strong linkages at the sub-national level which will contribute to a substantive bilateral relationship.
*Purnendra Jain is Professor in Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide. Tridivesh Singh Maini is a Senior ResearchASSOCIATE with The Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat. They can be reached atcontributions@spsindia.in
with The Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat. They can be reached atcontributions@spsindia.in
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