Key Points

Jawaharlal Nehru, as India's first Prime Minister and Foreign Minister from 1946 to 1964, was the chief architect of its foreign policy. He formulated and implemented the core principles that guided India's international relations in its initial years.

Nehru's foreign policy had three main goals. These were to preserve India's hard-earned sovereignty, protect its territorial integrity, and promote rapid economic development.

Non-alignment was the cornerstone of India's foreign policy, advocating for staying out of the two major military alliances led by the USA (NATO) and the USSR (Warsaw Pact). It allowed India to take an independent stand on global issues during the Cold War.

The core leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement included Jawaharlal Nehru from India, Josip Broz Tito from Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser from Egypt, Sukarno from Indonesia, and Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana.

India actively promoted unity among newly independent nations of Asia and Africa. The Afro-Asian Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955 was a major step that led to the establishment of NAM.

India and China signed the Panchsheel, or the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, on 29 April 1954. This agreement was intended to form the basis of a strong and friendly relationship between the two nations.

Tensions with China grew after it annexed Tibet in 1950. The situation worsened when India granted political asylum to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in 1959, which China strongly protested.

Border disputes over Aksai Chin in Ladakh and NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) led to a brief but decisive war in October 1962. China launched a swift invasion, and the conflict ended with a unilateral ceasefire and withdrawal by Chinese forces.

The war dented India's international image and led to national humiliation. It forced Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon to resign, weakened Nehru's political stature, and caused a split in the Communist Party of India in 1964.

Despite ongoing conflict over Kashmir, India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960. Brokered by the World Bank, this treaty for sharing river waters has remained a successful example of cooperation.

A serious armed conflict began in 1965 with Pakistani attacks in the Rann of Kutch, followed by a major offensive in Jammu and Kashmir. The war ended with UN intervention and the signing of the Tashkent Agreement.

The 1965 war hostilities ended with the Tashkent Agreement, signed in January 1966. The agreement was brokered by the Soviet Union between Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan's General Ayub Khan.

India supported the freedom struggle in East Pakistan after the Pakistani army launched a crackdown on the Bengali population. This led to a full-scale war in December 1971, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh.

To counter the US-Pakistan-China axis, India signed a 20-year Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Soviet Union in August 1971. This treaty assured India of Soviet support in case of an attack.

Following the 1971 war, the Shimla Agreement was signed between Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on 3 July 1972. It formalized the return of peace and the resolution of issues through bilateral negotiations.

India initiated its nuclear program for peaceful purposes under Homi J. Bhabha. It conducted its first nuclear test in May 1974, terming it a 'peaceful explosion' and committing to using nuclear power only for peaceful purposes.

India has consistently opposed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, considering it discriminatory. India argued that the treaty legitimized the monopoly of the five existing nuclear-weapon states.

After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR, India's foreign policy shifted from a pro-Soviet tilt to a more pro-US strategy. Economic interests began to play a more significant role than military interests in shaping its external relations.