Neighbourhood Policy Crucial to Energy Security

The constraints related to India’s neighbourhood will however continue, particularly its volatile relationship with Pakistan, increasing closeness that China enjoys with India’s neighbours, aftermath of diplomatic missteps in Nepal and the Maldives, tenuousness of its relationship with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh depending on who is in power - all of these will necessarily continue to add to the vulnerable conditions that affect energy security.

• However, this is what makes energy diplomacy a key part of India’s foreign policy goals; or to put it in another way, the goals of energy diplomacy very much reflect India’s larger foreign policy aims.
• Despite claims of India’s abandonment of non-alignment, what we see in reality is more a policy of multi-alignment as India engages equally with the US, China, Russia, Japan, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia and so on, and at the same time emphasising the centrality of South Asian stability and security through the Neighbourhood First policy.
• The goals of energy diplomacy are essentially the same; given the changing nature of international relations, there is no effective way to mitigate security risks, other than to diversify energy options as much as possible, which ultimately means to engage all energy partners - both existing and new; and at the same time to ensure the stability of its neighbourhood. Without a stable South Asia, India will neither achieve its energy goals nor its foreign policy goals.