Global collaborations opening up new avenues
The emergence of space cooperation as an important leitmotif in India's foreign policy is perhaps best evidenced in two areas: India's relationship with the US, and in its interactions with its immediate neighbours. For the first case, one has to look at how significantly the India-US Space Security Dialogue has evolved. An outcome of the 2014 US-India summit, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted President Barack Obama in this country, the Dialogue is now in its second year and was held in New Delhi on Thursday. Already, it has set the pace for strong bilateral cooperation — while Indian and US diplomats talked in New Delhi, a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was meeting its counterpart at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore for the third Isro-Nasa Mars Working Group, building on the successes of the US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting last September. The two agencies are collaborating on a number of ventures, including the first-ever joint earth science satellite mission. Additionally, India and the US are also coordinating their actions on multilateral platforms such as the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites and the inter-Governmental Group on Earth Observations. The international regimes to govern outer space activities are still being developed there is not one treaty-based agreement in this sphere and India, as a space-faring nation and a rising power, is keen to help shape the new global governance structures. The Missile Technology Control Regime, which regulates space trade among others and to which India applied for membership last year, is a good example. India is also hoping to join the other three major regulatory regimes in this area the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, and the Australia Group. The White House has already announced its support for India's entry to all four regimes, and in fact, it was the historic India-US nuclear deal that laid the foundation for India's new role.
Indeed, it is India's growing profile as a space power that is allowing the country to add space cooperation to the sub-continent's diplomatic mix. The most high-profile project in this regard is the satellite for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which is to be launched in December this year. Additionally, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, India's own GPS satellite, can also cover some parts of the sub-continent. However, cooperation in this regard as in almost every other aspect, from trade to transport has suffered because of socio-economic and political concerns. The Saarc satellite that is being pushed by the Modi Government today, was first proposed in 1995. With countries such as Sri lanka and Bangladesh now seeking to better leverage space technologies, there is an opportunity for India to lead the way.