At the "Melbourne Meets Modi" event in Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked that "when India sends aid, it does not look at the colour of the passport". Two weeks earlier, on 24 June 2026, earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela in rapid succession, plunging the nation into an unimaginable catastrophe. In a single morning, Venezuela lost more lives than most nations lose to natural disasters in an entire decade - with a harrowing toll of 3,342 dead and over 16,000 injured. Compounding the tragedy, the very infrastructure built to save lives crumbled, leaving the hospitals of Caracas as casualties of the seismic shifts.
India responded instantaneously with Operation "Amistad", meaning "friendship" in Spanish. Two Indian Air Force C-17 Globemasters landed in Caracas carrying a 41-member medical and rescue contingent, an Indian Army field hospital, thirty tonnes of relief material, six tonnes of medicines and two BHISHM (Bharat Health Initiative for Sahyog, Hita and Maitri) cube portable hospitals. This immediate, unconditional relief is not an isolated event. Instead, it is a defining characteristic of Indian diplomacy that stretches far beyond the political memory of the modern Indian state, drawing directly from a 5,000-year-old civilisational ethos.
The earliest Indian medical envoy on record is Jivaka Komarabhacca, the legendary court physician to King Bimbisara of Magadha in the sixth century BCE. When Chanda Pradyota, the king of Avanti and a fierce rival of Magadha, fell critically ill, Bimbisara chose compassion over strategic exploitation. Rather than capitalising on his adversary's vulnerability, Bimbisara dispatched Jivaka to heal him. The Pali Vinaya details both Jivaka's successful cure and King Pradyota's famously volatile temper. Beyond the clinical success, the enduring lesson of this encounter lies in the political decision: a monarch lent his finest physician to an enemy ruler, earning a lasting peace and goodwill that no military campaign could ever have bought.
What began as these individual acts of cross-border compassion eventually became institutionalised as formal state policy under the Mauryan Empire. Following his adoption of non-violence, Emperor Ashoka made medical diplomacy official state policy and carved it into stone. His Second Rock Edict explicitly announces the establishment of medical care for both humans and animals, extending far beyond his own borders:
"Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputras, the Keralaputras, as far as Tamraparni and where the Greek king Antiochos rules, and among the kings who are neighbours of Antiochos, everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Along roads, I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals." (Rock Edict II, Girnar).
In fact, this fundamental belief that healing transcends borders continued to flourish through successive eras. In Baghdad, Indian physicians served the caliphs and translated classic medical treatises, such as the Sushruta Samhita, into Arabic. Meanwhile, spiritual and physical healing went hand in hand as Princess Sanghamitra (daughter of Emperor Ashoka) travelled to Sri Lanka carrying a sacred Bodhi sapling, demonstrating that India's oldest, most enduring exports were beyond weapons of war: plants, philosophical texts and healers.
It is this very civilisational heritage that has been inherited by the modern Indian state, manifesting most visibly during the Vaccine Maitri initiative of the COVID-19 pandemic. India assumed the role of a responsible and trusted global friend, distributing over 300 million vaccine doses, medical aid and equipment to over 100 countries. This global outlook is anchored in a fundamental belief system that bridges private faith and public diplomacy: the idea that the world's true stability cannot exist if one nation suffers from an epidemic while another remains healthy.
In the modern era, this philosophy has translated into a dense, continuous sequence of disaster relief and health cooperation. This active role is demonstrated by Operation Maitri following Nepal's 2015 earthquake, Operation Brahma in Myanmar, and urgent relief sent to Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah. Similarly, Operation Neer dispatched fresh drinking water when the Maldives' primary desalination plant failed. Beyond immediate crises, India financed Sri Lanka's 1990 Suwa Seriya ambulance service to provide island-wide emergency response, and established the India-built Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health to secure long-term paediatric healthcare in Kabul.
In view of its "Neighbourhood First" policy, the magnanimity of India is reflected in the fact that a focussed prioritisation is extended to all its neighbours. For India, health security is treated as a shared regional responsibility. During Vaccine Maitri, New Delhi prioritised sending its first vaccine consignments to Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh ahead of its commercial exports. Furthermore, special facilities are extended to citizens of neighbouring countries on a personal level. Every year, thousands of Bangladeshi nationals travel to Kolkata and Chennai for medical treatment. To facilitate this, bilateral arrangements completely waive the Indian visa fee for Bangladeshi nationals seeking a medical visa. Under this scheme, a Bangladeshi patient may bring three medical attendants, whereas most other nationalities are permitted only two. This highly thoughtful provision recognises that a woman travelling for chemotherapy may need her sister alongside her husband for physical and emotional support.
From Jivaka's ancient journey to Avanti to the modern C-17 planes unloading BHISHM cubes in Caracas, India's strategic culture views health as a universal human baseline. It is a domain where geopolitics steps aside because the costs are measured directly in human lives, standing true to the ancient Sanskrit philosophy:
(May everyone be happy. May everyone be free from illness. May everyone witness what is auspicious and may no one suffer.)
Ultimately, Operation Amistad is a modern manifestation of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the ancient declaration from the Maha Upanishad that the world is a single family. In line with this, the Prime Minister, at the "One Earth One Health - Advantage Healthcare India 2023" address, called for an integrated, inclusive and institutional global response to healthcare challenges. By acting as a healer to any nation in need, India honours a civilisational code carved into stone over two millennia ago: that true strength is found not in the ability to dominate, but in the willingness to heal.
R K Pachnanda, Former Chairman, Haryana Public Service Commission; Former Chairman, Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission; Former DG-ITBP; Former DG-NDRF; Commissioner of Police. Kolkata; Director, Bharat ki Soch; Arpan A Chakravarty, Research Fellow, Bharat Ki Soch; Views presented are personal.