A platform to boost trade ties

Cultural diplomacy and intelligence-gathering hold the key to fostering bilateral relations between India and Australia. These can propel economic prosperity for both countries

Any economic growth, beyond just transactional trade and investments, is based on people-to-people links, starting at the leadership level. The India Economic Strategy (IES) 2035 report, authored by Peter N Varghese, Chancellor, University of Queensland, recognises the importance of people-to-people links as a part of the bilateral architecture and is leadership driven.

This diplomacy approach includes political, bureaucratic, business and sectoral leaders at the ground level to build trust, social understanding and cultural capacity between countries over a period of time consistently, and goes beyond ongoing arts and cultural exchanges or programmes between the countries. Crisis such as the Doklam conflict between India and China was diffused by a well-planned “informal” meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan, China. The summit was set with social and cultural exposure to reiterate the bond between the two leadership, translating to a bilateral relationship.

In a similar way, it was a conscious decision by Prime Minister Modi to bond with former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with a metro ride to the Akshardham Temple to establish leadership trust. In doing so, Narendra Modi signalled that India’s foreign relations have grown in strength not only based on its strategic and economic priorities, but also its history, multi-cultural values and social equity.

Cultural intelligence and capacity: India and Australia both have a multi-cultural society and work environment that requires the Government and leaders across various sectors to be equipped with cultural intelligence as a skill. Cultural intelligence not only plays an important role among stakeholders in shaping diplomatic, domestic and international policies, but also nurtures businesses, industries, communities and society. Cultural intelligence is also known within businesses as cultural quotient (CQ), which is a theory within management and organisational psychology. This is a critical gap I see where bilateral stakeholders are unable to apply this skill, which is commonly misunderstood for cultural exposure or knowledge of a country.

Cultural intelligence and capacity will make positive impacts at three broad levels for Australia in context of bilateral relationship:

• Diplomacy and policy: In Australian diplomacy, bureaucrats and political leadership need to consider shifting from the lens of ‘Anglospheric or Anglo-Saxon’ to a ‘socio-cultural’ lens of India for bilateral engagement. This will allow Australia to interpret India’s vision of development and build a new strategic narrative from non-alignment to multi-alignment in context to India’s foreign policy of a new global order. Australia’s foreign policy towards India can lend a new dimension with relevant inclusion of cultural diplomacy, which is still conventionally viewed as state-sponsored/supported arts and cultural exchange.

Cultural diplomacy needs to have an inclusive approach of bringing the Government and business leaders to consult with the social sector and sustainability and cultural leaders for policy development. The case for such policy consultation required is that economic investments can’t be made in any geography without a social, ecological and cultural audit of the region. Socio-cultural insights make the deployment of investments effective and mitigates on-ground resistance or bottlenecks, such as the Adani case. Australia’s own domestic policies for a multi-cultural society and economy could benefit from building cultural capacity among policy-makers and influencers. A positive start in this direction has been the launch of ‘Victoria’s India strategy’ in 2018, underpinning the importance of cultural understanding in its domestic policy approach and Indian engagement.

• Trade and business: India’s socio-cultural diversity and complexities can be leveraged as a demographic dividend with an access to the largest youth population in the world. The report highlights this opportunity in each sector and state-wise focus. Australian trade and business ecosystem is inclined towards short-term results. It is transactional rather than long-term relationship, unlike the Indian counterpart that prioritises trust and relationship building as a propeller for transactional trade and business collaborations. Macquarie CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, had emphasised on Australia looking at India for business with patience and nurturing a long-term relationship. The bilateral ecosystem of stakeholders, including bodies like Australia India Business Council, need to integrate cultural capacity as a tool of engagement for business and trade opportunities. Australian corporate companies, that also employs a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic workforce, would benefit from cultural intelligence skills in their work environment as they expand across the Indo-pacific region.
• Education and exposure: Leadership starts with education and community engagement. The Australian education sector can lead towards capacity-building of cultural intelligence among education leaders and student community as future leaders. Education is Australia’s third largest export sector and is also home to the second largest student population from India. Cultural capacity is an ideal tool to bring diverse student population (including local Australian student’s cultural capacity) across Australian universities, not just to leverage this skill in their education or work environment, but also in their respective communities/societies. This skill is also helpful to the Australian leadership, team and faculties within universities to be more effective in attracting Indian students to study. But most importantly, it helps in mentoring students to thrive as working professionals and positive contributors to the society.

Additionally, there is a critical gap between the Australian mainstream media and the online platform’s presence in India for consistent and on-ground coverage of our diverse country. A biased exposure and skewed interpretation of India hasn’t helped the Australians with the current multi-dimensional perspectives of India.

The strategy and opportunities laid out in the IES 2035 report can be realised when leadership across the bilateral spectrum recognise cultural capacity as a multiplier of growth. Cultural diplomacy and intelligence can be a strong lever that can propel the economic prosperity vision of 2035 for Australia with India.

(The writer is Director, Collaborative Community and Steering Committee member of AIYD)