The South India Times
Spcl Correspondent
Despite limited foreign corps of around 1500, Indian new diplomacy is paying rich dividends ever since Narendra Modi took over the reins in New Delhi. However, the credit goes to the seasoned Foreign Service bureaucrat Subramaniam Jaishankar for India’s phenomenal success story of winning the hearts of the entire world barring a few nations like China and Pakistan.
Jaishankar’s rich experience, as he inherits from his father, who also held the same Foreign Secretary post in the past, has ensured India strikes the right balance even in difficult situations that the world may be facing. Whether during the Covid crisis when the entire world was fuming and fretting against China, holding its Wuhan Biological lab responsible for spreading the most dreaded virus, in its bid to become a superpower destroying the rest of the world’s economy, or now in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict which has put the majority of countries under financial stress due to fuel and energy shortage. The virus has claimed lakhs of lives across the globe.That India has played a pivotal role, for the first time in the recent past, is evident in how it could not only develop vaccines in a record time, not only help save thousands of people of its own but also ensured to reach out to as many as 84 countries and saved thousands of lives from the virus.
senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Narendra Modi’s foreign policy style during the last five years has been dizzying. From whirlwind visits around the globe to stadium-packed appearances abroad to selfies and bear hugs with the business glitterati and world leaders alike, he has left a distinctive mark on the international stage. Not bad for a former chief minister who had little foreign policy experience and whose first national campaign barely mentioned world affairs. Yet, for all the histrionics that have marked Modi’s term in office, three achievements, however incomplete, are likely to make a real difference to India’s strategic fortunes over time.
The first is India’s bold outreach to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. For far too long, the Persian Gulf did not receive the attention it deserved. Many countries there were viewed as overly supportive of Pakistan for religious reasons and hence left outside of India’s priorities, which focused on secular states such as Egypt and Iraq in the past. That the smaller countries in the Gulf were overly beholden to Saudi Arabia did not help either, especially when Riyadh was zealously exporting Wahhabi Islam with its trail of destruction, plain for all to see.Recognizing, however, the political changes in the Arab world, Modi moved unexpectedly to engage Saudi Arabia and the UAE in ways that promise important political and economic benefits. The weakening of the traditional, knee-jerk support for Pakistan is already in evidence, but the longer-term gains derive from the Gulf monarchies’ deepening opposition to Islamist terrorism as India continues to struggle against this threat.
The growing interest in India as an economic opportunity further suggests that the wealthy Arab states will increasingly acquire a stake in New Delhi’s success. India already remains a major customer of Gulf energy, but as India rises internationally, it will become more important to the region’s strategic interests.
Modi’s ability to jumpstart this transformation, while avoiding enmeshment in the current intra-Gulf rivalries and preserving good relations with Iran, demonstrates an agility that has eluded even the United States. An equally momentous renovation has been the upswing in ties with Japan. Early steps towards a partnership with Tokyo began under Dr Manmohan Singh, but an unimaginable acceleration has occurred more recently due to the close personal ties between Modi and the late Shinzo Abe.Their relationship is hard to explain: the backgrounds of the two men are vastly different as is their leadership style. Nor can it be accounted for merely by the common concerns about China, although Beijing is never far from their minds. Whatever the reasons, Japan and India have become indispensable partners in the “free and open Indo-Pacific” is enormously valuable for both (and for Washington).
