IBSAMAR: INDIA’S IMPERATIVES, TRANSFORMATION PROSPECTS

The holding of joint exercises is one of the forms of cooperation in the South-South format. It contributes to strengthening military-political ties between the countries of the Global South and ensuring security in the key regions. An example is IBSAMAR, a joint naval exercise involving the Indian, Brazilian and South African Navies. The emergence of a new geopolitical construct (the Indo-Pacific region) and the growth of its popularity in the Indian expert and political community make it necessary to rethink the place of IBSAMAR in India’s security system. The article analyzes the main imperatives that induce India to participate in this format: the desire to maintain dominance in the Western Indian Ocean and involve the countries of East Africa in its foreign policy orbit, to ensure the security of one of the strategic “choke points” to the Indian Ocean, the intention to strengthen ties with South Africa and Brazil, taking into account the need to ensure the security of movement of goods (especially hydrocarbons) through the South Atlantic and to demonstrate its independence and multi-vector nature of its external policy. Analyzing the proposals of Indian experts on the possible expansion of the IBSAMAR format and the creation on its basis of a regional security structure, the author comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to implement them without a radical change in the Indian external strategy. At the same time, the experience gained in the holding of IBSAMAR can be in demand within the framework of security cooperation in the Russia-India-China format.