India a Tri-Polar Nation: Breaking the Ice

By Dr. Uttam Kumar Sinha

India recently unveiled a draft Arctic policy outlining its engagement in the Arctic. The draft paper noted the five pillars of India’s Arctic policy: science and research; economic and human development cooperation; transportation and connectivity; governance and international cooperation; and national capacity building.

The Arctic is a vast geographic region spreading around the North Pole with wooded tundra, glaciers and endless stretches of permafrost and sea ice cover that are undergoing dramatic changes as the climate warms. The physical changes or the ‘shrinking’ of the Arctic, as it is generally described, is not only creating imbalances in global climate but has socio-politicoeconomic consequences as well.

Scientific endeavours

While the Arctic is far and away from India yet it is near. This is being increasingly evidenced through the atmospheric science of ‘teleconnections’ which refers to ‘climate anomalies being related to each other at large distances.’ India’s long years of polar research endeavours in the Antarctic and its more recent scientific footprint in the Arctic brings the science of snow, ice and permafrost closer home to the Himalayas. The Antarctic- Arctic-Himalaya is now described as the ‘Three Poles’ with the Himalayan system as the Third Pole and India very much a ‘Tri- Polar’ nation. India in 2008 set up a research station Himadri and since 2013 has been an observer member of the Arctic Council along with other Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea and Singapore. The glaciological and atmospheric developments in the Arctic are thus important for India.

Civilization connect

While India’s scientific engagement is noted, the draft policy makes it amply clear that it cannot be the only lens to look at the Arctic. The Arctic, often less emphasised, incredibly showcases India’s civilizational connect and soft power. The preceding year (2020)marked Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s death centenary. Tilak, a prominent leader of India’s independent movement in his work (The Arctic Home in the Vedas, 1903) concluded that the ancestors of India’s ancient Vedic civilization lived in the Arctic region. It was for the first time that the Arctic was featured in India’s racial debate. This, of course, was challenged later by the ‘Out-of-India’ thinking that claimed the Indo-European languages originated in India and moved ‘westwards’, thus debunking the Aryan migration theory. The point, however, is not to contest or support Tilak’s findings, but to locate the Arctic in the popular imagination. There is a historical legacy that needs to be underscored by looking at Tilak’s arguments and his work should be celebrated as a knowledge heritage.

India’s relationship with the Arctic, has indeed racial, philosophical, anthropological and linguistic dimensions, especially when seen through some of India’s ancient texts. Mainstreaming these textual connections to contemporary Arctic policies, which have largely been dominated by scientific narratives, is a useful exercise to emphasize that the Arctic has profound roots in Indian thinking and can thus be seen as a ‘familiar’ region to India. The government could do well to release a postage stamp underscoring India’s interest in the Arctic. Interestingly, 2020 also marked 100-years of our colonial participation to the Spitsbergen Treaty (1920) that defined Norway’s sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

Given India’s connection to the Arctic region, it should celebrate Yoga International Day in Ny-Alesund research station in the Savalbard, the northern most inhabited island, 1234-km from the North Pole, where a community of international scientists, including Indians, work in harmony and collaboration. Yoga is an important tool of India’s soft power and the most impactful public good. Further India’s emphasis on solar energy and its leadership in the International Solar Alliance (ISA) can have a footprint in the Ny-Alesund research station by setting up solar panels thus emphasising clean energy in mitigating the impact of climate change.

Economic emphasis

India is one of the fastest energyconsumers in the world and the Arctic presents an opportunity to join hands with the Arctic littorals like Russia in exploring the hydrocarbon potential. Apart from hydrocarbons, in particular natural gas, India should look at mineral development in the Barents area and secure an investment footing with the assistance of Norway and Russia. The Barents region has some of the best known mineral deposits and some of the world’s best deep harbours from which to ship the products. The region is rich in iron-ore and the demand for steel will be critical to India’s growing economy. India’s labour force with skills in port development and mining can help develop the Barents region. Indian business should participate in the Arctic Economic Council, created in 2013 that facilitates business-to-business activities and responsible economic development.Moreover, India’s healthy relations with Norway and Russia and the time-tested Norwegian and Russian cooperation in the Barents can help facilitate our economic ventures. From a scientific, economic and strategic perspective a tripartite grouping of INR (India-Norway-Russia)can be an important catalyst of peace and development in the Arctic. Like the Russia-India-China (RIC) strategic grouping it can renew old ties (with Russia) and foster newly discovered friendship (with Norway).

Emphasising the bilateral

The Arctic can be an important domain of India’s engagement with both the permanent members of the Arctic Council and the Asian observer members at bilateral levels. While India’s bilateral Arctic efforts has gained traction with Russia and Norway, it can become an enduring feature of our cooperation with US and Canada as well. Setting up research bases in the Alaska (US) and the Cambridge Bay (Canada) to study impact of climate change, ice melting, marine life, bio-diversity and geothermal energy potential will enhance our capabilities in dealing with these challenges in our neighbourhood. Also observing the rights and voices of the indigenous community in the entire Arctic region will help in our own inclusive and integrated economic development.

Arctic issues can be a core component of India-Norway relations. Norway led from the front in supporting India’s candidature in the Arctic Council and continues to back India’s candidature for permanent membership in the UN Security Council. Both the countries can further cooperate in the field of science and technology particularly as India is in the process of building its own icebreaker to conduct scientific and business activities in the Arctic Ocean. Recently, India deployed the IndARC mooring in the fjord with the help of Norwegian vessel and Norway will continue to give this facility till India gets its own vessel. The geothermal sector in India remains largely unexplored and most of India’s geothermal locations are in the Himalayas. India has already signed an institutional agreement with Iceland (2018) in the geothermal sector. With Asian actors, South Korea will be important. As the northern sea route opens up, South Korea will become a potential hub for oil storage. The Comprehensive Economic partnership Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea now includes maritime transport and maritime technologies. In the light of this, it would be important for India to rework the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea.

Considering a Himalayan Scientific Council

The outcomes of India’s diplomatic engagements in the Arctic can enhance India’s regional role in the Hindukush Himalaya and advance the need for a Himalayan Science Council with the Himalayan states: Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bangladesh. In the ‘Neighbourhood First’ approach many initiatives have taken place like the launch of the South Asian Satellite and the setting of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) at campus of National Seed Research and Training Center (NSRTC) in Varanasi. Like Norway’s global seed bank in Longyearbayen (Savalbard) to which India made its first seed deposit (pigeon pea) in the Vault in 2014, India too has a seed vault at a height of 17,500 ft at Chang-La in the Himalayas, 75-km from Leh in Ladakh. In an effort to conserve crop diversity and develop food resistant to the vagaries of climate change the Himalayan Scientific Council can play a knowledge-policy role in the region.

Conclusion

The contemporary Arctic presents an ‘antithetical situation’ with economic and commercial interests on the one end and a need for mitigating climate risks and resource governance, on at the other. The evident geophysical changes accompanied by development opportunities have turned the Arctic into an important space with many perspectives that often ‘blur the lines’ between business, governance, science, and society. India’s Arctic approach needs to be well rounded and comprehensive considering the convergence of the threegeos: the geo-physical, the geo-economic and the geo-strategic.

Dr Uttam Kumar Sinha works at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He has extensively travelled the Arctic region and in August 2017 visited India’s research station Himadri in Ny-Alesund in the Svalbard archipelago.