India's Space Diplomacy Forging an Independent Track

India’s space diplomacy has evolved over time with not only multiple international partners but also creating a commercial pathway for the private space sector.

Though there are still numerous policy reforms required to increase the participation of the private sector, it is fair to say that India’s recent activity in the space domain has made it one of the most resilient international players.

Looking back at the South Asian cooperation, India has been leading the way forward and simultaneously uplifting the innovation pathway for its neighbors. One of the key examples is the GSAT-9 satellite launched in 2017 for the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Space has emerged as one of the key pillars of India’s outreach in the global comity of nations. Building durable overseas engagement and cooperation exemplifies India’s policy of non-aligned multilateralism.

By Omkar Nikam

While such cooperation between India and its neighbouring nations is thriving on the country’s growth in the space sector, the privatization policies will also further create opportunities for international relations. To better understand this sphere of India’s footprint in the space sector and how it will impact diplomatic relations in future, let’s dissect the following points step by step.

Bottom-to-Top Approach

Space technology is a domain which requires the utmost risktaking capabilities as well as heavy financial investments. The NewSpace wave has reduced the overall costs in this field and opened a gateway of opportunities for the private sector, but the ratio of investments vs. return on investment remains uncertain for most of the verticals in the space industry.

To have a broad perspective, let’s travel back in time and look at India from the 1960s and 1970s. This was the time when the country gradually started prioritizing its economy, civil development projects, and education. While some of its neighbors were heavily injecting funds into the military domain,

India took a different route.

Circling back to 2023, India today has one of the most powerful young forces driving the wheels of the economy at both national and international levels.

This similar bottom-to-top approach is also necessary to create a sustainable sphere of space assets. The current state of privatization of the space sector is gradually benefiting the downstream market. But the upstream market still requires more flexibility to drive innovation in the supply chain.

Strengthening the upstream space market policies reduces outsourcing, which further leads to the acceleration of financial and innovative technology, and lastly, it positions the nation to invite or supply the upstream space products to its international partners. India’s supply chain requires more flexibility in terms of both government support and finances. And this will be one of the key factors in the future to drive international relations from the lens of space technology.

Casting A Wide Net

India is one of the top consumer markets in the world, and therefore several satellite communication operators and service providers target this commercial hotspot since past two decades. Services like Direct-to-Home (DTH) have been widely popular across the country and companies like Airtel, Dish TV, and Tata Sky are some of the prominent players to provide satellite services in both urban and rural areas.

Similarly, casting a wide net over private space companies for unlocking their potential is necessary to ensure the healthy growth of the space sector. For example, companies such as SatSure are solving some of the critical issues in agriculture (and other industrial sectors). This doesn’t only create a strong impact on the space sector but also directly yields productivity at the grassroots levels.

The unlocking of high potential for companies operating in other space verticals is possible but requires strong government support to get the ball rolling in the market. India recently created multiple agencies, including Defence Space Agency (DSA), which are reportedly catering to developing space assets for military agencies. This can be seen as a progressive step by the government but the resilience in the upstream supply chain requires a stronger push to smoothen the overall space technology development and manufacturing process.

Diplomatic Hot Seat?

The world is closely observing India, especially the developed nations, not only for its mammoth-sized consumer market but because it has the necessary resources to participate and amplify international relations globally.

In 2022, India unveiled its plans to develop military satellites for each of its armed forces (Air Force, Army, and Navy). A step that also signaled India’s ambitious plans to integrate space technology and applications in the military domain. While the shared defense and security goals have been only limited to military exercise, uplifting the upstream space market can possibly help India create a pathway to trigger military satellite cooperation with its allied nations.

Coming to the nexus of international relations, the current geopolitical landscape is gradually pushing India on an unstable tectonic plate where the country is consistently hammered to forged alliances; a move India has ignored for several decades and has been the key reason for its rise as an independent nation.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) brought together Australia, India, Japan and the United States (US) to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Space Situational Awareness (SSA). While this can be seen by many as a sphere of influence for alliance building, it is necessary to consider that the interests of each of the QUAD members do not fully align from the geopolitical perspective.

Currently, both China and India are seen as the prime nations in the Asian region. While the US sees India as a potential navigator to overcome challenges in its presence in Asia, India on the other hand prefers to blend in with its independent position in international affairs.

While the joint-military space asset development is not a high priority list, the US and India are currently strengthening bilateral cooperation in space for collaborating in the earth and space science field including human space exploration, global navi- gation satellite systems, spaceflight safety and space situational awareness, and policies for commercial space.

From the recent developments, it can be considered that India is in the hot seat of both challenges and opportunities. In this climate of stretched international relations, space cooperation (from both civil and commercial perspective) can be used as one of the ways to keep its global position independent.

Future Vistas

India’s future in the space sector, aligned with its international relations, has the high potential to navigate through uncharted territories of the world. The key factor backing this point is India’s independent decision-making power and its ability to narrow its focus on supporting its partner nations rather than churning out fuel from its allies. This has potentially led it into this diplomatic hot seat from where the country is navigating and maintaining healthy relations with multiple nations.

The development of India’s space assets, in-house production capabilities have the ability to trigger the wave of partnerships as well as increase cooperation in global space supply chain globally. Simultaneously, a gradual change in private policy reforms and providing more government support in the upstream market will further scale its private space sector to new heights.

Omkar Nikam is an independent consultant and strategist specialising in space applications for defence and security, based in Strasbourg, France. In his decade-long career, Omkar has advised a range of clients including governments and private space/defence agencies across multiple countries

Email: omkar@accesshub.today