This includes reaching beyond India to new potential partners for building new capabilities to protect India s more broadly defined international interests. Pakistan remains a concern, but it is no longer the defining characteristic of Indian foreign policy or strategy. Instead Indian strategists speak openly about the need to counter China s influence, which they see as increasingly threatening in all regions from Northeast Asia to the Persian Gulf. China, not Pakistan, is the threat that causes most concern among Indian strategists, and one hears the worry of encirclement by China in most discussions with Indian strategists. In this context, India is establishing relationships in many directions to support and protect a range of interests.
Energy is one potent driver.
In Central Asia, India is deeply concerned about the instability in Afghanistan and seeks to exert its strategic leverage there. To pursue its objectives, India is deepening its relationships with Iran and Uzbekistan. India s long-term relationship with Iran is based on a shared concern about Pakistan and the turbulence in Afghanistan, and on energy security. Iran is a leading energy supplier and India s gateway to Central Asia. In Southeast Asia, India has reinvigorated its Look East policy.