Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent foreign visits and his high profile interactions with the diaspora often are treated with derision by critics. Yet, it cannot be undisputed, these foreign visits have transformed the contour of Indian foreign policy to substantial extent. The purposes might be manifold a discussed here and here . Yet, it is only part of the picture.
For many years, Indian foreign policy adopted a path of least resistance through an instrument called non alignment. It was a different story that there was nothing non-alignment about it but provided a smokescreen to wriggle out of difficult situations. Non Aligned Movement was more of trade union of the global political calculus. Despite its shortcomings, it provided a platform for India to interact with 100 other countries. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of Cold War, end of Apartheid made NAM increasingly irrelevant. India was left clueless in the new political order that appeared primarily centred on unipolarity. India had to readapt itself to the mutable universe and there was unsurprisingly a time lag before it could come to terms and prepare its strategy.
However, the Indian engagement remained inconsistent and fuzzy. Despite pretensions of an aspiring superpower, ambitions to be part of High Table at Security Council, the spadework essential for realising those desires never took off. They were primarily through a soft power model and implicit with very little risk taking. One rare moment of risk taking was the Indo-US Nuclear deal signed by UPA-I, the spadework having begun by NDA-I. Post 2014, Prime Minister Modi turned the profile and directions of the foreign policy significantly. It began with the invitation of SAARC Heads of State and Government to the swearing in ceremony.
There were fundamentally two elements in the new policy calculus. First was connect with the Indian diaspora abroad. On multiple occasions Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj through her interventions on Twitter signalled Indians abroad were not helpless neither alone and Indian foreign ministry stood behind them at all times. It might be help for lost passport, arrangement of visa to visit ailing relatives or bringing back the bodies of Indians who died or killed abroad, or the high profile evacuations from Yemen to Iraq to rescuing Indians kidnapped in Afghanistan or tracing Indians killed by ISIS in Iraq, personalised foreign policy intercessions defined the foreign policy. It transmuted the functioning of the Ministry of External Affairs. The competencies developed raised the Indian silhouette when other countries depended on India to evacuate their citizens struck in war zones in different parts of the world.
Secondly, diplomatic outposts in many countries complained about non-visits by Indian ministers and delegations to those countries. In absence of ministerial or even secretarial visits, bilateral relations remained in a sort of limbo. This had to be changed. If India desired a permanent membership of Security Council or places on other high tables of global governance, India needed to involve on a large scale with the rest of the world. Therefore with this said objective in mind, the ministers were asked to visit all the countries across the world. By 2019, all the UN members and observers had been covered by ministerial visits and many instances saw the rest of world sending their ministerial delegations to India. Plurilateral engagements through Indo- Africa summit, India- Pacific Summit, Indo-CARICOM summit etc. India was able to engage at high levels with multiple countries on a single platform. Though unlike China, India doesn’t have sufficient dollars to bring them under the Indian ‘camp’, a beginning was made.
There are 192 UN members including India besides two observers viz Palestine and Vatican. An analysis through numbers would bring about the sheer reach of India’s engagement since May 2014. Bilateral, multilateral or plurilateral engagements happen at multiple levels. The first is the high level engagements which happen at President, Vice President or Prime Ministerial levels in Indian context. The overseas counterpart would be President, King/Queen/Emperor, Crown Prince /Crown Princess or Vice President or Prime Minister or equivalent positions. Beneath the high level engagements are those were the interactions happen at the Foreign Minister level or at the times the level of Deputy Prime Minister or special envoy of Head of State or Government. Cabinet Level Ministerial interaction comes next followed by the interactions at the junior ministers or bureaucrats. Further the exchanges might happen in India, the overseas country or at neutral venue like UN Summit or at the side lines of multilateral events. A scrutiny of the same would be worth pursuing.
In the last five and half years, perusing the data from Ministry of External Affairs and other sources, high level visits from India have happened to 115 countries including the UN observer state of Palestine. In fact, delegations at the highest level from many of these countries have visited India reflecting the changing bilateral nature and reach of relations with the global system.
The picture below illustrates the point
Source: Collected from data at www.mea.gov.in; Names in bold represent countries where both outgoing and incoming visits have occurred – Not arranged in any particular order
Many of these visits to countries like Paraguay, Costa Rica, Peru, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Gambia etc. were perhaps first time and Indian dignitary having visited the state. VP Venkaiah Naidu’s visit for instance to Comoros what essentially lies in India’s backyard with significant diaspora was the first such visit. Indian Prime Ministers had not visited Bahrain till Aug 2019 despite close equations for decades. The visits to UAE etc. happened after around 40 odd years despite hosting large expatriate population. Some visits like to Norway etc. would perhaps be to keep them in good humour considering their membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group. If nothing the sheer scale of these visits should send signals on Indian seriousness of engagement abroad. Similar picture is conveyed through observing the data for high level incoming visits yet no corresponding outgoing visits to those countries have happened.
Source: Collected from data at www.mea.gov.in; Names in bold represent countries where both outgoing and incoming visits have occurred – Not arranged in any particular order
Given the importance of each country’s vote in UN General Assembly, Indian interactions have extended to hosting heads of state and government from tiny Pacific Islands like Palau, Micronesia, Marshall Islands etc. It is also India’s way of competing with China for markets of global reach and influence. As stated earlier, India is just a beginner in the game. To Kuwait, no high level visit has happened since almost 40 years yet foreign minister visit has happened and India has hosted in the last few years influential members of the Kuwaiti royal family during their visits in private capacity. An Indian foreign minister visited Vatican as part of Sainthood to Mother Theresa.
On certain occasions, high level engagement has happened at a neutral venue. With some countries, the engagements might not have assumed formal bilateral or plurilateral settings, it might have been confined to pull-aside, nevertheless an important mechanism in global diplomacy. India has continued to engage with foreign ministers at multilateral events. In some cases while visits to each countries have not happened, yet engagements continue at all possible occasions. In some cases during multilateral or plurilateral interactions with Indian Prime Minister, the foreign countries might have been represented by their foreign ministers or equivalent. Similarly, there might have been occasions when Indian foreign minister would have interacted with Head of State or Government. On some occasions, while meetings at high level might not have happened, telephonic conversations between Indian Prime Minister and his counterparts have occurred. An instance of the same is Ukraine. The picture below captures some of these interactions.
Source: Collected from data at www.mea.gov.in; Names in bold represent countries where both outgoing and incoming visits have occurred – Not arranged in any particular order
India after long time has reached out to Caribbean countries which have historical relationship both through diaspora and cricket. Indian foreign policy has reached out to tiny European outposts like Liechtenstein, San Marino etc. The interaction has even covered war torn countries like Syria, Yemen, Libya etc. at the MEA level.
The entire analysis reveals just five countries outside the engagements at least at MEA level. Two of those countries, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Honduras, have been covered through interactions at the Cabinet Minister level thus a sign of high level talks. Three countries- Lebanon (war-torn, politically unstable), Montenegro and Andorra (tiny European outpost) have not been engaged with. A foreign minister visit to Lebanon a couple of years ago was cancelled due to prevailing conditions, yet MJ Akbar as Minister of Foreign Affairs has visited Lebanon. Given his expertize on the region, it can be termed high level interaction. MoS, External Affairs Gen (Retd) VK Singh has visited Montenegro. The interaction with Andorra has been on a Minister of State level, though technically given French President is the traditional head of state for Andorra, high level of interaction can be deemed to have happened.
In the market for global lobbying, influence etc. India has started very late. It deemed moralistic pursuits have hindered the scale and scope of interaction. India needs to sustain the hard and soft powers of engagement with the rest of the world if it has to command traction and influence and gain seat at high table of global diplomacy. India had occasions before, it lost them, and it cannot afford to lose the opportunity again.
Thoughts on Theory and Practice 