The first order of diplomatic business for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 would be joining the rescheduled East Asia Summit this week. Dr Singh is unlikely to encounter any surprises at the summit in the Philippines as India continues to build upon the rather successful “Look East” policy that was launched in the early 1990s. In contrast, many diplomatic challenges await the PM in our western neighbourhood.

The region stretching from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa via the Persian Gulf is in the middle of a great turbulence. Among the many gathering storms in this arc of crisis are: the potential failure of the international coalition in Afghanistan amidst the resurgence of the Taliban; mounting political tensions between Kabul and Islamabad; the political instability in Central Asia; the likely break-up of Iraq; Iran’s nuclear defiance of the international community; the collapse of the old order in the Middle East; and failing states in the Horn of Africa.

To be able to secure our growing interests in the western neighbourhood — from energy security to counter-terrorism — India will have go beyond ad hoc responses to individual crises. It must define what we might call a ‘Look West’ policy. Here are nine possible elements that could go into it.

The first is an independent approach to the region. Too often an ‘independent foreign policy’ has been defined as simply opposing Washington. Even Iran with all its hostility to the ‘Big Satan’ doesn’t buy that line. The Bush administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran, for example, were the two cheerleaders of Saddam Hussein’s hanging. India’s interests in the region stand on their own. Nor is the US policy a static one. So long as the US remains the principal power shaping the region, New Delhi must find ways to maximise regional cooperation with the US, where our interests converge and minimise the negative consequences when they diverge.

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