The Third Annual Global Dialogue Security Summit 2020

The third edition of the Global Dialogue Security Summit (GDSS) organised by Global Dialogue Forum (GDF) and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) kicked off on Friday, December 11, 2020. The virtual conference addressed the theme “Contesting the Indo Pacific for global domination”, one which is relevant amid a global pandemic and a shift in global perceptions towards China, which is regarded as a controversial actor on the world stage, especially in the above mentioned region. Over two days, the digital conference analysed through eminent speakers various facets of the shift in global power to the Indo Pacific region from the Atlantic, and weighed the civilisational consequences in issues from security to the environment to the economy to international law to technological advancements.

Before the floor was open to the keynote speaker, Mr. Moses, in his introductory remarks emphasised  India’s pivotal role in the Indo Pacific strategic construct and on the importance of the reshaping the Indian armed forces into a powerful modern 21st Century entity that can ward of threats at its doorstep and influence the tides of the Indo Pacific as the region becomes the epicentre of global wealth and power.

The keynote speaker, General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Defence Staff of the Armed Forces of India described the Indo-Pacific as a tough neighbourhood and a contested region.

General Rawat said India needed to achieve not only military might, but also economic strength.

“By virtue of our geophysical configuration, strategic and  economic imperatives, we look at the seas and oceans surrounding us with ever increasing interest,” he said.

He stressed that India needed structured long-term planning for capability building and capability development of its defence forces.

“In our quest to build a stronger India, we need a peaceful and stable security environment, we need to maintain strategic autonomy, cooperative relations,” he added.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Rimmele, India head of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, pointed out that not only Germany, but the European Union which has started to take note of the Indo-Pacific and China’s growing influence over the region.

“Contesting the Indo-Pacific for global domination is very decidedly what neither India nor Europe want for the region. It is more a threat than a promise. And arguably there is only one force that is both capable as well as willing to strive for this kind of domination: The People’s Republic of China,” he noted.

Mr. Rimmele asserted that Germany was looking for partners in the Indo-Pacific. “Germany is not looking to become just another power, trying to unilaterally impose its vision on the region. Like India, we understand ourselves as defenders of a multilateral world order under threat,” he added.

The Australian High Commissioner to India asserted that like India, Australia has a keen interest in the Indo-Pacific region in which it is located. Not only does Australia depend on an Exclusive Economic Zone in the Indian Ocean, it has increasingly become concerned about security in the region.

“We also recognise the important part that Australia has to play in supporting security and rule of law throughout the region. Our partners do the same so that collectively we benefit from the growth Indo-Pacific offers all of us. In doing so, cooperation is the key and for this we look to our top-tier partners, like India.”

The summit had a total of seven sessions during which eminent professionals and experts examined the turbulence of change, fuelled by the ascendance of China and India as military and economic powers and discussed whether there will be equitable reform of global multilateral institutions

The idea of the Quad nations took centre stage in most discussions during the summit. Admiral Arun Prakash, eminent defence analyst, former Chief of Naval Staff of Indian Navy, Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Indian armed forces,  who spoke after the Australian High Commissioner, was vivid in his description of Chinese ambition and geostrategic trajectory in global domination with its various sub-components. He stressed on the US as a bulwark against the Chinese expansionism. India faces an unenviable situation of asymmetry on land, especially in light of the military stand-off with China. India has a major role to play in ensuring ‘a rules-based order,’ not only in the Indian Ocean, but also the Indo-Pacific. Given its strategic location, economic potential and naval capabilities, India, in concert with the US and other members of the Quad, needs to evolve a regional consensus to deter China.

The “Connecting with Europe” session saw former Ambassador Ruchi Ghanashyam talk on the potential of the EU- India cooperation, their shared values and ethos. She cited the example of the joint efforts on the COVID-19 vaccine as a wonderful template for future cooperation in the areas of AI, climate change, environment and river rejuvenation among others. Priya Poojary, Associate Professor, Manipal Center for European Studies examined the genesis of the Indo-Pacific and its relevance in the geostrategic and geo economic political discourse. She highlighted the divergences in the concept of the Indo-Pacific and the global approach to the region – for example, India had turned to the Quad approach. She highlighted that Europe was only now turning its gaze with France and Germany leading the way inspite of high stakes and insecurity in the region. 

The next session “Towards an Equitable Global Economic Order” was moderated by Ambassador AR Ghanashyam. Mr Rahul Chhabra, IFS, Secretary (Economic Relations) Ministry of External Affairs charted out various disparities and road blocks to achieving SDGs while acknowledging the fact that the pandemic had exacerbated the challenges of achieving equitable multilateral world order. Dr Rathin Roy, Managing Director, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK, centred his speech on global growth and prosperity, climate change and consumption and what lies ahead.

Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani brought our attention to the fact that never before had so many people been lifted out of poverty as in the last thirty years. For this, globalisation deserved a lot of credit. Alluding to political scientist and economist, Francis Fukuyama, he pointed to the rising Asian global order and highlighted the cases of India and China as leading examples to the rest of the world.

In the last session of Day 1 titled “Maritime Rules”, Dr. Jefferey Becker, Research Programme Director, Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Centre for Naval Analyses, George Washington University, USA viewed China’s maritime expansion and the silk route as a cause of concern. Yet, he believed they had created an opportunity for India and the US to work together on new challenges. Being democracies, the Quad countries shared common values and were natural partners to address the dubious behaviour of China. The downturn of US-China relations were not caused by the Trump administration, he said but had rather already begun in the second Obama administration. He predicted that it would continue to affect the Biden administration as well. He talked extensively on the recent foundational agreements signed between the US and India but said more needed to be done on the ground. Dr. Connie Bakrie, President, Indonesia Institute for Maritime Studies, Jakarta said that challenge now for Indonesia and ASEAN was to balance between the “willing countries like Australia and the US and non-willing countries like China”. Coalitions needed to be reached despite asymmetries. India and ASEAN need to work together, “quit the talking” and “start the doing”.

Day 2 started with the session “Eurasia in the New World Order”. Dr. Laura Yereksheva, Professor at al-Farabi Kazakh National University’s Oriental Faculty (Almaty, Kazakstan) spoke of the concept of space and its various interpretations. She argued that while globalisation was all about shrinking space, the pandemic was about expanding it, what with social distancing being advocated in almost every avenue of daily life. In the Indo-Pacific too space was interpreted differently notably between France, USA, Japan, Germany, India and other interested countries. The Indo-Pacific concept she said seemed to be aimed at restricting China and preventing the region from becoming a Sinocentric space. She brought into focus the infrastructure of Eurasian space for the economics of the region and the various instruments the Eurasian economic community and the Indo Pacific.

Lt Gen Arun Sahni (Retd.), former General Officer Commanding in Chief, South Western Command said that post-WWII liberal world order was under stress and a new order was looming. Due to many crises and challenges plaguing it, Europe had diminished in stature. China in turn, had become a huge player in the European block while Russia needed to find opportunity to regain its lost glory. To this effect, Russia and China are synergising their effort to create a regional space that is free of western influence.

Session 7 titled “the Future of India” hosted Salman Khurshid, senior advocate, Supreme Court of India, Former External Affairs Minister, Former Law and Justice Minister and John Varghese, Principal of St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi. Mr. Khurshid took to the stage first to say that India had come a long way since its independence and it deserved a place on the global high table. He argued for a need to reorient priorities and cultural ethos adopting humanistic approaches. He said, “Subscribing to the idea of dialogue and connectivity is important. Two dimensions are important in dialogue – expressing aspirations and the backdrop in which the aspirations are expressed”. For India, priorities needed to focus on food security and legal rights among others. Professor Varghese on the other hand advocated for a stronger reliance on education as a key driver for growth of India. He said, “India has ability to make a difference in the world – we have a large youth demographic which, with right ideals, can effect change. Future of India is the future of the world. education with the right value is key. Education, and not military education…the attempt to thrust one ideology on the world will not work. This is where a democracy will work. India’s cultural variations are a strength”.

The next session was titled “Water of Life”. Ritu Rao, specialist on urban water bodies, Teri School of Advanced Studies highlighted the distinguishing characteristics responsible for the degradation of  water bodies like rivers in the context of urbanisation and how this degradation was affecting humankind. Meanwhile Dr Ashok Swain, Director, Research School of International Water Cooperation at Uppsala University, Sweden noted that water scarcity could trigger forms of violent conflicts among or between groups. He advocated that water cooperation could trigger regional peace, that it had the power to transform mistrust and suspicion among the countries to bring opportunities for shared gains and establish a pattern of reciprocity. It is, however, important for the countries, particularly in South Asia to use their common water resources as a catalyst to cooperate and develop together, he added.

The final session “Overcoming the 21st Century’s Existential Threats” hosted Dr. Matthias Strümer, Head, Research Center or Digital Sustainability, University of Bern, Switzerland; Shreyas Jayasimha, Head Aarna Law; and Prof Dr. Carlo Masala, Director, Project Metis, Institute for Strategy and Foresight and Chair for International Relations, University of German Bundeswehr, Germany. Dr. Strümer discussed how the Big Tech companies like the GAFAM had a market capitalization of over USD $ 8700 billion, which is almost three times India’s GDP, and how they were responsible for data colonialism in the cyberspace. He noted that data was a strategic good and that there was the issue of data sustainability especially with regards data sovereignty and data localisation as a source for  AI, etc. Prof. Dr. Masala speculated on the possibility between rising power of China and declining power of USA. Meanwhile, Mr. Jayasimha elaborated the legal implications of increased use of unmanned technology in warfare – Drones and AI controlled devices.

Finally, the valedictory was delivered by Air Marshal Diptendu Choudhary, Commandant, National Defence College. He rightly pointed to the “geopolitical jostling” as a result of the pandemic and the blurring of boundaries between the traditional and the non-traditional, between home and office, and between friends and rivals. He stressed that collaborations between like minded powers had the ability to force China to rethink its ambitions in the Indo Pacific. “We see the helplessness of world organisations like UN on one hand and on the other, reluctance on part of traditional powers to take charge. Collective leadership by like-minded powers is the way forward in the Indo-Pacific. It is time for like-minded governments to come together with a common goal, strategise and analyse,” he said.

The vote of thanks was extended by Pankaj Madan, Deputy Head, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung India, who summed up the Global Dialogue Security Summit 2020 and thanked the organisers, speakers and participants.