The interconnected diplomatic initiatives have to be seen in the larger context of spurring the rise of India as a great power

New Delhi: A day after the Republic Day celebrations this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a digital summit with the leaders of five Central Asian states, the first such engagement with the resource-rich and strategically located region. The summit showcased transformational diplomacy, which has become a defining feature of India’s foreign policy under the Modi government. The summit culminated in an ambitious joint statement that upgrades and transforms New Delhi’s relations with the five Stans states, which have acquired an added salience in regional diplomatic calculus since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. This diplomatic exercise of bringing the whole region on a common platform under the rubric of a region-wide summit illuminates a vital feature of Prime Minister Modi’s unprecedented diplomatic outreach in the last nearly eight years. In sync with its rising global profile, India has hosted the first-ever summit of the International Solar Alliance, the first summit with the leaders of Pacific Island states and the largest ever gathering of African leaders on the Indian soil.

MAKING INDIA GREAT

As India celebrates 75 years of Independence and the Modi government is about to complete eight years at the helm, these interconnected diplomatic initiatives have to be seen in the larger context of spurring the rise of India as a great power, with a unique voice and perspective in a world stricken with geopolitical rivalries. With the overarching strategic objective of making India a great power and its people prosperous, the government has shed years of risk-aversion, under PM Modi’s watch. Indian diplomacy has become more innovative, courageous, and nimble-footed, enabling India to navigate its own emergence on its own terms. This out-of-the-box approach was evident from Day 1 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, armed with the largest mandate in a quarter century, took charge of the country on 26 May 2014. Showcasing its Neighbourhood First diplomacy, the leaders of all neighbouring countries and Mauritius were invited to the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister. Over the next few years, PM Modi has visited all SAARC countries sans Pakistan which has stubbornly persisted in using cross-border terror against India and stonewalling justice for victims of 26/11 Mumbai carnage.

The focused and systematic upgrade and transformation of India’s relations with the Gulf countries is widely seen as among major foreign policy achievements of the Modi government. PM Modi has deftly steered diplomatic outreach to the energy-rich region, forging robust security and counter-terror cooperation with key players in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Another major achievement of the NDA government is the upgrade of Look East to Act East policy, which signified accelerated result-driven engagement with the strategically located region. The India-ASEAN commemorative summit in 2018 was a milestone that brought the leaders of all ASEAN countries to India for the first time as chief guests at the Republic Day celebrations.

TRANSFORMING INDIA

The multifarious diplomatic outreach in the last few years was not about pomp and pageantry, but was part of a well-crafted strategy to fuse foreign policy with national development and resurgence. Besides elevating India’s global profile, this across-the-board diplomatic engagement led to foreign collaborations and financial support for flagship schemes of national renaissance, including Make in India, Skill India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Namami Gange and Start-up India. Enhanced engagement with India’s external partners has brought visible benefits to people through foreign investment and technology tie-ups, leading to the setting up of factories and creation of jobs. Forging of green energy partnerships with countries like the US, France and Denmark has set the stage for clean low-carbon life for citizens of India.

MAPPING GLOBAL AGENDA

The recalibration of India’s foreign policy in tune with the emerging world order has led to India becoming indispensable in addressing diverse cross-cutting challenges, ranging from combating terrorism, global warming, piracy and pandemics to reshaping of global governance architecture. Instead of being reactive, India proactively set the global agenda and played a constructive role in key multilateral platforms such as the UN, the G20 and the COP 26. The country’s rising global stature is clearly reflected in its ongoing tenure as a non-permanent member of the UNSC on 1 January 2021. India’s presidency of UNSC for the month of August 2021 was marked by pioneering initiatives and its focus on effective multilateralism and forging of a consensus on preventing the use of the Afghan territory for cross-border terrorism. The highlight of the month-long presidency was a high-level signature event on maritime security presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first time the Prime Minister of India chaired the Security Council. The finesse with which India has steered global issues during its UNSC tenure has buttressed its credentials for acquiring a permanent seat in UN Security Council. On terrorism, India pursued the policy of zero tolerance and forged counter-terror coalitions. National security issues moved centre-stage to India’s diplomatic outreach. The Indian government displayed unprecedented decisiveness and boldness in addressing Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism head-on through offensive surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads in the Pakistani territory.

MULTI-ALIGNMENT

India’s diplomatic outreach in the last few years has been marked by delicate diplomatic balancing, which can be called issue-based multi-alignment. India has managed to strike a balance in its relations with the GCC countries and Israel on the one hand and between Iran and Israel on the other hand. This diplomatic trapeze act underlined the country’s growing confidence in harnessing ties with mutually antagonistic power centres without getting sucked into zero sum games. This approach was also crystallized in PM Modi’s vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific at the Shangri La Dialogue in June 2018. In his speech, PM Modi underlined the centrality of ASEAN to the new Indo-Pacific and rejected any attempt to portray the Indo-Pacific Region as a club of limited members. In sync with this vision, New Delhi played a constructive role in bolstering the Quad grouping comprising India, US, Japan and Australia and in shaping outcomes of the two Quad summits held so far. In yet another sign of nimble-footed diplomacy, New Delhi has joined a new Quad comprising India, Israel, UAE and US, which is focused on enhancing economic cooperation in West Asia.

Looking ahead, as India maps its ascent amid an intensely conflicted global geopolitical landscape and the seemingly unceasing deadlock with China over the Ladakh incursions, it will have to be an agenda-setter and risk-taker rather than dabbling in a thousand visions and revisions. In his book “The India Way,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar underlined that it’s “not the India way to be self-centred and to be mercantilist.” “The India way would be a country which brings its capacities to bear on the international system for global good,” he said.

As the world grapples with the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic and its new variants, India has vaccinated not only over a billion Indians, but has also provided vaccines and other medical support to over 100 countries around the world under the “Vaccine Maitri” initiative. Amid growing global volatility and uncertainty, India has burnished its credentials as a bridge-builder, healer and global public goods provider. The world is looking at the country of 1.4 billion anew as an emblem of hope, resilience and resurgence. In his recent address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, PM Modi conjured up this surging India-optimism in the world. “A strong democracy like India has gifted the whole world a beautiful gift, a bouquet of hope,” he said, a tad poetically, encapsulating the essence of India’s global rise for the world.