Author: Manish Chand

“Out-of-box thinking.” Striking an upbeat note on the trajectory of India’s external engagements in the days ahead, India’s new external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj indicated innovative thinking could well be the mantra of the foreign policy of the new government in India.

Unveiling his desire to transform India-Pakistan relations, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held his first meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and underlined the need for both countries to work together to fructify “the common agenda of development and revival.”

Days after he was elected with an overwhelming mandate to lead the world’s largest democracy, India’s prime minister-designate Narendra Modi has unfurled the South Asian dream as the leaders of SAARC countries have been invited by Delhi to attend his swearing-in ceremony next week.

India’s connect to Central Asia in the middle of the election fever in the country, as telescoped in the May 7-9 visit of Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh to Tajikistan, underlines the growing strategic importance of the resource-rich region.

Amid the frenzy and fever of the world’s most colourful elections, India’s diplomacy is quietly and meaningfully humming along as the country’s foreign secretary and senior diplomats head east, west, north and south, in quest of new opportunities unleashed by a rapidly globalising world.

It’s a journey without frontiers. Thirty people, 19 countries, one common mission: honing in on the art of holding elections and keeping the democratic fire burning.