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Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
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9 Apr, 10 tweets, 4 min read
While the optionality gained by not ratifying the UNCLOS lends the US substantive maneuverability in any effort to exert global maritime dominance, the recent events appear far less “provocative” than what we see vis-à-vis traditional allies like Japan and South Korea.

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The Japanese and South Koreans have seen US warships just 12 nautical miles from their coast (as opposed to India’s 130 miles). Unbounded by UNCLOS, and with a formidable naval fleet, they will continue to dominate the seas and project power even against regional allies.
The main sticking point is the publicity the US has given to its actions. As I have mentioned before, the US’ inclusion in the Quad is as much about FONOP in their favor and securing their geostrategic interests as it is about unilateral power projection in the Indo-Pacific.
There’s also a bigger natural resource play in the works. As the US decarbonizes, its demand for lithium and rare earths will grow exponentially. Currently, China dominates in the upstream and refining sectors. Seabed mining provides an efficient alternative to land-based mining.
India too is in the race for securing lithium. Its maritime claims under UNCLOS give it access to 70,000 sq km in the IOR. For the US, displaying military prowess in mineral rich seas is perhaps a 21st century version of what it did in oil rich lands. indiaglobalbusiness.com/analyses/in-fo…
Despite claiming that having not ratified the UNCLOS does not prevent it from engaging in seabed mining, the US struggles to get around the legal challenges. Defense firms like Lockheed have had to set up foreign subsidiaries to access mineral rich regions afar.
The incursion near Lakshadweep, which is mere 450 miles from Maldives, may also be worthy of being viewed in context of the US-Maldives defense partnership (which New Delhi endorsed). There’s a global superpower with a military footprint in India’s immediate maritime space.
But as mentioned by @d_jaishankar here, India’s and China’s respective visions for the Indo-Pacific differ vastly, and this plays into the US foreign policy matrix when they conduct FONOPs.
My response to the Brookings paper on the Asian order (expand for full thread):
An excellent thread on EEZs:

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More from @suryakane

Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
7 Apr
That the @UN may well be complicit in human rights abuse by handing over the names of Chinese dissents to the CCP speaks volumes of how money power can help a state with a dubious HR track record, capture an intergovernmental body.

And this has been in the making for a while.
In 2019, a @UNDP event which was meant to have a photography exhibition with images of HH the Dalai Lama and artist Ai Weiwei was canceled under Chinese pressure, according to Swedish government officials.

Cancel culture is not just limited to denying India a seat at the UNSC. Image
Despite being acutely aware of the CCP’s chequered history, the UN plans to set up a big data research center in Hangzhou. The aim - to collect vast sums of international data for the seemingly innocuous cause of achieving sustainability goals.

Note the concerns around it: ImageImage
Read 6 tweets
Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
20 Feb
This article discusses how temple grounds are used for the UK’s vaccination drive.

It states “...studies show that minority groups have higher vaccine hesitancy,” without mentioning that the Indian community is as likely as any other enthnic group to take the vaccine.
Why is @cnni hiding the details? When a Hindu temple is organizing a vaccine drive, why is the community grouped with other ‘South Asians’ and people from beyond who take the average anti-vax rate amongst ethnic minorities to a level higher than of the average population?
@NadaMBashir, is there any reason why a community-wise breakdown is not provided in this article? Is it to create a false equivalency between British Indian attitudes towards the Covid vaccine and those of other ethnic groups? Why is a Hindu temple used for monkey-balancing?
Read 5 tweets
Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
20 Feb
The ‘H’ in ‘Hindi’ is meant to be capitalized. But we let that pass because we get the point being made, right?

That aside, ungrammatical English is used by a large base of Indians for whom English is a second, third or even fourth language. It cuts across party lines.
A fraction of the population is educated in the English medium, and a sliver of them are taught well in the chaste form. Many of the same “trolls” referred to voted for the Congress or regional parties in the past. How else did the BJP’s vote share increase over the years?
Now on to the narrow base and the colonized mind. A small, English-speaking group penned (and revised) the ‘idea of India’. An overwhelming majority laid the concertina wire of English to protect the hallowed colonial halls they inherited, from the subaltern masses.
Read 4 tweets
Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
7 Feb
What can be stranger than those who enjoy the fruits of a liberalized agricultural market in the US condemn 95% of Indian farmers who are patiently waiting for the implementation of the laws which would grant them access a free market?
It’s not strange at all if it’s an effort to stymy reforms that can drastically improve labor productivity in India. The bills unleash the potential of hundreds of millions who have been denied the basic human right to sell their produce to who they wish, at the price they can.
Typically, the reason academics spend time studying before teaching is so that the information communicated to the audience is accurate.

Since it appears that has not been the case here, I’d recommend reading @gchikermane’s scholarly piece on the bills.
orfonline.org/expert-speak/a…
Read 6 tweets
Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
7 Feb
The profundity of @gchikermane’s essay truly matches its nuance. Meanwhile, the forthrightness of its arguments provide a framework for understanding the lay of the land of the emerging 21st century protest against the canvas of history. A must read:

orfonline.org/expert-speak/t…
Taking it further in the cultural context to derive a glide path for the impact on national consciousness and polity, it’s worthwhile noting that the postmodernist reductionism embraced by many who lend ideological support for such protests, hasn’t found broad adoption in India.
The idea that a minority/majority binary carries forth an inherited victim/oppressor narrative, finds little resonance in India outside some academic circles. Overlaying this, a majority of the nation’s farmers have not pushed back against the bills, and it is telling.
Read 9 tweets
Surya Kanegaonkar Profile picture
6 Feb
With history of developing working relationships with China and KSA while having unseated democratically elected governments in Iran, Brazil and beyond, the US would be well placed to circumvent discourse on democratic norms with India. Plenty of other areas to focus on.
Indian democracy is unique, and will always be so. An effort to superimposes a Western matrix of supposedly “liberal” democratic norms on a civilizational state that is emerging from the darkness of institutional as well as intellectual colonization, will see a natural pushback.
While our factors of production - land, labour, capital, entrepreneurship and technology - share some commonalities, our approach to pluralism diverge. India’s pluralism is rooted in its philosophies, similar to that of the indigenous Americans. It’s not enforced by constitution.
Read 6 tweets

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