The particularly difficult relations between India and Pakistan lead Iran to continue to play an important role in India’s strategy regarding Central Asia, particularly with regard to the establishment of a North-South commercial corridor and the construction of the Chabahar Port, which will allow it to reach Central Asia bypassing Pakistan.
With regard to India’s relations with Southeast Asia, it is important to mention the Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2009, with ASEAN, under which customs duties would be eliminated for 80% of traded goods, starting in 2016.
In ASEAN, India’s main trading partners are Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, although it is certain that ASEAN has greater relative relevance for India than the latter for ASEAN.
In recent years, Singapore has even become the largest investing country in India, above the USA, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany.
In any case, it is important to recognize that India’s degree of economic exposure to ASEAN is much more limited than China’s.
It is also important to recognize that high-quality connection infrastructures to ASEAN countries are not developed.
It is now worth making some — albeit brief — considerations about the existing relations between India and the African Continent, which do not follow — unlike what happens with China — a strategy of implementing new “linked aid” methodologies that only aim to ensure a hegemonic position in Africa.
Firstly, it is important to bear in mind a special Duty Free Tariff Preference celebrated in 2008, and is currently open to 34 Less Developed Countries – LDC of the African Continent.
Secondly, it is important to note that, between 2006 and 2016, around 54 billion US dollars were invested by Indian companies in Africa, and it should also be noted that India provided significant development assistance to many African countries, through the granting of credit on favorable terms (ie, aid credit under good concessional conditions).
It should be noted, however, that at the 3rd Summit of the India-Africa Forum, held in 2025, all 54 African states were represented, including 40 heads of state.
India has started to play a new role in Asia and the world in the last 25 years, and is now considered an important potential market, with excellent investment opportunities.
Finally reached the “shortage point at the Ranis and Fei”, with the emergence of a relevant endogenous market and the creation of a modern sector that integrates competitive business units in the international market.
It is, nowadays, a buyer of strategic importance in the Defense equipment and advanced technology sectors, being assigned a relevant role in the geo-strategic architecture of Asia, particularly with regard to security issues.
The new generations, after passing through highly qualified universities in the USA and the United Kingdom, created their own software and information technology companies, working on an outsourcing basis for large multinationals and achieving high levels of profitability.
When we see that India has evolved from a “non-alignment” position to a “multi-alignment” position, this does not necessarily mean that a negative evolution has occurred in Indian foreign policy.
On the contrary, until the Joe Biden Administration, there was a greater distance (although tempered by the need to seek to maintain a balance in terms of the correlation of forces in Euro-Asia) in relation to Russia than there was in relation to the former Soviet Union and a rapprochement with several Western countries (and, in particular, the EU).
Finally, the recently concluded EU-India Agreement could give Europe a new role in several regions of the Asian Continent.
In addition to what has been said, India is the largest democracy in the world, proving that it is possible to respect fundamental principles of coexistence between communities with pasts conditioned by parochial cultures and in populous and transitional countries, which is commendable.
No more, no less…
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