“Out-of-box” diplomacy. 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. Going by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s masterly diplomatic initiative of inviting the leaders of South Asian countries at his oath-taking ceremony and engaging them in talks, one could expect more surprises from the country’s foreign policy establishment.
Taking charge of her South Block office in Delhi formally on May 28, Swaraj, India’s first female foreign minister in three decades, struck all the right notes on SARC diplomacy, talks with Pakistan and the trajectory of India’s multi-faceted engagement with major powers as well as emerging regions of the world, including Africa and Latin America.
“My priority will be to showcase our strengths to the world and improve ties with neighbouring countries, strategic partners, Africa, Europe and others,” Swaraj said in her maiden interaction with the media after taking charge as the country’s foreign minister. The minister struck an upbeat note on Modi’s South Asia diplomacy and the future of regional integration. “I think talks with SAARC leaders were successful,” she said. “I would like to say that for the first time the SAARC leaders felt that a government and a prime minister who thinks out-of-the-box has assumed power in India,” she said.
The minister stressed that Prime Minister Modi has “a vision for friendly cooperation with each of the SAARC countries.” “This invitation (to South Asian leaders) was the first step towards realizing this vision. A promising beginning has been made at the start of the new Government in our engagement with each of these countries,” she said.
Inviting Pakistan’s leader to oath-taking ceremony was indeed a diplomatic coup of sorts for India’s new prime minister, and gives a foretaste of a bold and imaginative neighbourhood diplomacy in the months to come. Giving an insight into the talks between Modi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Swaraj said that India wanted good relations with Pakistan, but stressed that for bilateral ties to flourish, terror activities must stop. She said India’S prime minister Modi also asked for a speedy trial of the 26/11 Mumbai terror accused. Recalling Modi’s famous formulation that the talks can’t go on amid the clatter of guns and explosions, Swaraj said that this point was forcefully conveyed by Modi to the visiting Pakistani guest during their talks May 27.
Swaraj also handled queries on India’s relations with the US and Japan deftly and stressed that one relationship can’t be compared to the other or pitted against the other. The initial public pronouncements of India’s new foreign minister seem to suggest that the new Modi government will pursue a pragmatic and assertive foreign policy, centred on robust economic diplomacy and polycentric engagements, to maximise the country’s developmental options and to raise its international profile. Broadly speaking, one can expect the new dispensation in New Delhi to be assertive on national sovereignty issues and security, but given Modi’s core agenda of economic rejuvenation, New Delhi will be more than flexible in pushing the envelope of international economic engagements. Armed with an overwhelming parliamentary majority that has ended a quarter-century of coalitions in India, the new prime minister and foreign minister of the country should be able to shed diffidence that has characterised New Delhi’s foreign policy postures and take audacious but well-conceived initiatives to make India count as a global power.
Author Profile
- Manish Chand is Founder-CEO and Editor-in-Chief of India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org) and India and World, a pioneering magazine focused on international affairs. He is CEO/Director of TGII Media Private Limited, an India-based media, publishing, research and consultancy company.
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