A telling speech foreshadows an India more focused on domestic markets and one with less clout in the region.

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar this week made the clearest statement yet that India intends to head back down the road of economic autarky – for strategic reasons. This would represent a U-turn on almost 30 years of trade liberalisation, with profound effects for India’s role in the region and the Australia-India relationship.

The National Security College (NSC), with the support of the Department of Defence, is leading a two-year research project on Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy in the Indian Ocean. As a part of this project, this paper analyses India’s potential economic future direction. This paper first appeared on the Lowy Institute’s ‘The Interpreter’ on 20 November 2020.

Photo by Naveed Ahmed on Unsplash.