Modi betters India’s multilateral engagements
This past week has been a busy one for Indian diplomacy, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa summit and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Russia, on the sidelines of which he also met with the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Presidents of Afghanistan and Iran, as well as undertaking a five-nation tour of Central Asia. There are two important takeaways from last week's deliberations: First, India is deepening its international engagement, making it more purposeful and determined, and second, it is also seeking to break new ground in areas that have been previously ignored for whatever reason. In short, we are seeing an overall scaling up of the content and form of Indian diplomacy.
Take a look at some of the proposals suggested by Mr Modi at the Brics summit: There's the Brics trade fair (which will possibly be hosted by India for the sometime next year), a railway research centre, a film festival, a digital initiative, an agricultural research centre, a forum of state/local Governments among the Brics nations, a sports council and an annual sports meet among others. Each one of these is a ground-level initiative that has the potential to convert the rhetoric of the global high table into real time action. This is what helps foster people-to-people connections, which in turn brings tangible benefits to the public. These measures are part of the new Brics Economic Cooperation Strategy, and it is heartening to see that India has sought to leave its own distinctive footprint on the document. Mr Modi has also called for cooperation among Brics cities in dealing with urbanisation as well as cooperation in the field of water consumption — both are grassroots level issues that impact thousands across the emerging world. His request that the first project of the Brics's New Development Bank be in the field of clean energy also similarly builds on an issue that is common to all Brics countries which are struggling to meet the energy requirements of fast growing, aspirational populations in a sustainable manner.
That this kind of substantial Indian engagement is happening at the multilateral level is important because up until now, the general assessment has been, that while India does well in bilateral dealings, it has somehow not quite found its place within the multilaterals, despite some successes in global financial diplomacy. Though India is now part of a whole host of multilateral forums and organisations and is keen on joining more (as the SCO membership stands proof), there has always been a question mark over its contributions to global diplomacy through these outfits.
For example, one may rightly ask: What is it that India seeks to do at or gain from the SCO (once it joins the grouping formally next year), that it cannot do or gain bilaterally from individual Central Asian nationsIJ Only time will tell. In the meantime, compare India's profile with that of, say, China, which is widely acknowledged to be the unofficial leader of the Brics grouping. The India-Brazil-South Africa grouping could have been an Indian project within the emerging economies but it has hasn't really taken off. China, on the other hand, has also incubated the SCO while Russia leads the Eurasian Economic Union. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation remains the most natural ‘India club' — and thankfully, India's engagement here is gradually improving. Add to this, the fresh Indian fervour at Brics and the new chapter that is being opened at the SCO, and there is reason to hope that a new era in Indian diplomacy may finally be on the horizon.