Chietigj Bajpaee
Much of the discussion surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Russia was about its implications for India’s relations with the West, given the optics of Modi hugging Vladimir Putin as Moscow conducted airstrikes on Ukraine and Western leaders were meeting in Washington, D.C. for the NATO Summit. However, overlooked in this discussion is the fact that Modi stepped away from the standard practice of Indian leaders making their first overseas state visits to a neighboring country.
The first overseas visits of Modi’s first two terms in 2014 and 2019 were to Bhutan, and Maldives and then Sri Lanka, respectively. In 2024, following the start of Modi’s third term, he paid a visit first to Italy in June for the G-7 Summit and then, in July, traveled to Russia.
This alludes to an emerging facet of Indian foreign policy: As the country continues its rise as an increasingly consequential global power, its regional role is being eclipsed. This is a far cry from Modi’s initial commitment to the neighborhood when he assumed power in 2014 by inviting the leaders of all South Asian countries to his inauguration and his government announcing a “Neighborhood First” policy. Modi’s surprise visit to Pakistan in December 2015 to meet then-counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday also raised hopes of a rapprochement in the perennially difficult India-Pakistan relationship.
No comments:
Post a Comment