India is a torch bearer for modern times, and given its rich heritage, ancient and modern history, it’s story is crucial for sustainable, peaceful and prosperous future of the planet. For context, France became part of EU more or less from an Empire status, and USA, though an old state, became true democracy only around 60 years back. As Indian democracy is celebrating ‘azaadi ka amrit mahotsav’, EAM makes it very clear that it will not tolerate unnecessary grandstanding.

Addressing the Globsec 2022 Bratislavia Forum, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar lambasted the West’s over its glaring hypocrisy on Russian oil imports by India. Referring to the new sanctions, designed to cause minimal or no harm to its population, EAM said, “Europe is buying gas. New packages of sanctions are designed where consideration has been given… timeline is there…not like everything will be cut off instantly…people need to understand if they can be considerate to themselves, surely you can be considerate to others. So if Europe says we have to manage it in a way that the impact on our economy is not traumatic, that freedom or choice should exist for other people as well.” He added, “Tell me buying Russian gas is not funding the war? Why, it’s only Indian money, oil coming to India which funds and not gas coming to Europe which funds.”

The 20th century had started with civil unrest and resourcelessness and political tensions loomed over states across the globe for more than five decades. The entire century was dominated by massively disturbing events like two world wars, nuclear attacks, crisis like Spanish Flu & great depression, Cold War and then the post-Cold War conflicts. A politically super-charged world order was met with the concept of “non-alignment” in the aftermath of the Korean War, an idea that persisted even till the Cold War time. For India, the concept of non-alignment began as a policy of non-participation in the military affairs of the then highly-bipolar world. It meant a country should be able to preserve a certain amount of freedom of action internationally. The ripple effects of such a stance would not be recorded anywhere, would go unseen and unacknowledged and eventually get lost in the mists of time. But if this notion wasn’t strong enough, the world wouldn’t have come to a stage where for once, it took a stop. It wasn’t until the last two decades of the century that many states took a break from choosing sides externally and shifted their focus on internal matters & development. Progressive trends like globalisation, cultural exchange, trade pacts, privatisation, technological breakthroughs, space exploration, decolonisation began to bring positive change across the globe.

This led to a much evolved and mature global setting and a highly inter-connected world order with trade, technology, peace and security acquired the center stage. The focus beautifully shifted to revival of economies, preservation of culture and establishment of healthy bilateral relations across the globe, slowly laying foundations of ‘multilateralism’ for collective growth and sustainability. And this is exactly what the New India has learned, understood, is applying and endorsing for the whole world to see.

Yesterday, further hitting out on Europe on being silent on many key issues including India and China and the rule-based order in Afghanistan, EAM has said, “Somewhere Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problem but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problem. Come on guys, India and China happened way before anything happened in Ukraine”. He reckoned that the “world cannot be that Eurocentric that it used to be in the past”.

Further, speaking of India’s wheat ban decision, EAM said, “Our goodwill was used for global speculation and we had to do something. What we saw happen with vaccines, we don’t want to see happen with wheat.”

“Low-income countries, many of whom are traditional buyers like our neighbours Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, interestingly the Gulf, buy from us regularly. Yemen buys from us, Sudan buys from us, what we saw was low-income buyers were squeezed out, wheat was actually being stocked for being traded, so our goodwill was being used for speculation. We have to do something to stop that because it was also affecting us as home prices were going up,” EAM added.

Further responding to a question on India was allowing “trans-shipment of oil”, EAM asserted, “There’s an enormous shortage of oil, there’s a physical shortage of oil, getting access to oil is difficult. A country like India would be crazy to get oil from somebody and sell it to somebody else. This is nonsense.”

The 21st century is all about trade, technology and resource management. Few years back, the entire world experienced the tremors of the bad impacts of the US-China trade tussle. This was followed by COVID-19 Pandemic and then the Ukraine-Russia Crisis. These instances are clear indication that any deviation from the Path of ‘Sustainability, growth and Peace’ is going to lead the world towards damage and disruption. And this is exactly the message India has been trying to convey to the world and this is clear in the kind of global initiatives it has been taking up, in the kind of global collaborations and multilateral agreements it has been engaging in and in the kind of support and aid it has been extending to the world since the last 7-8 years. India understands the reality, potential and practicality of the century well and hence strongly stands for mutual respect.

Indo-African relationship has historic importance and is set to define future for majority of world’s population. Dating back several centuries, the relations between India and African countries are driven and shaped by a number of factors, including trade and investments, cultural, historical and political engagements. A youthful demography, fast growing economies and vast amount of natural resources are something that both sides enjoy, causing envy and interest in rest of the world. Ongoing visit by the Vice President is the first-ever high level visit from India to Gabon and Senegal. This visit is set to add momentum to India’s engagement with Africa and emphasize India’s commitment to this continent as Africa is increasingly becoming important to India’s foreign policy calculations also.

Not only India, but rest of the globe is also far more interested in the African continent today than any time in history. India and Africa’s historical links and relations have experienced a revival in recent years and both sides understand the fact that it is a win-win situation as growing relations are mutually beneficial. India-Africa trade has grown to around 66.7 billion US dollar in 2019-20. Around 8% of Indian imports are from Africa and around 9% of Africa’s imports are from India. The investment of India’s public and private sector enterprises are increasing in Africa, making it the 8th largest investor in African. Besides loan and investment, India has also given ample amount of aid to Africa to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the Vaccine Maitri initiative, India supplied 24.7 million doses of Made of India Covid vaccines to 42 countries in Africa.

India’s engagement with Africa focuses much on its core competencies like human resource development, training and skill development, IT, ITES, education and healthcare services which are very different to the Chinese approach, which focuses majorly on developing manufacturing capacities and infrastructure in Africa. While, China’s economic model of engagement with Africa looks attractive and has also paid rich dividend in recent years, the fascination for India’s support for democratic practices, processes, institutions and people to people engagement is high in Africa. India also has an advantage of language and cultural affinity. English is far more prevalent among the people in African countries than any other language, making it much easier for Indian to interact with African people. Moreover, over 3 million strong Indian diaspora in Africa also proves to a crucial strategic asset for India to further its relations with African countries.

Over half a dozen countries in Africa are among the fastest developing economies including Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania, making it one of the growth pole of the world. Real GDP in Africa in the past decade has grown almost twice. African continent has a population of over one billion with a combined GDP of 2.5 trillion dollars, which makes it a huge market. Taking these all things into account, India is making consistent efforts towards strengthening relations with Africa. India’s duty-free tariff preferential scheme has been beneficial for Least Developed African Nations. The India–Africa Forum Summit- the official platform for the African-Indian relations, is also contributing immensely to this building up the relationship process.

With a dynamic start-up ecosystem, India has over 100 unicorns where the Japanese capital is already playing an important role. Japan has, in fact proved to be an invaluable partner in India’s journey for development, prosperity and modernization, helping in various sectors from the automobile sector to industrial corridors. Terming the relations between India and Japan as special, strategic and global, Prime Minister Narendra Modi penned an op-ed on this vibrant engagement in the Yomiuri Shimbun, a leading Japanese newspaper, covering a wide range of issues, relationship and concerns. Stressing on the need to re-invigorate and redesign the relationship in a post-COVID era, he said both countries have immense scope to strengthen the engagement across sectors like trade, investment, defence manufacturing, cyber, space, underwater domains and security. PM Modi’s op-ed also said, India has always seen Japan as an indispensable partner in country’s continuing transformation in all directions.

India offers speed, scale, ease of doing business, attractive incentives, courageous reforms and ambitious plans to create unmatched opportunities for one and all. Japanese investments and developmental assistance are spread across India with the iconic Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project symbolising Japan’s extensive collaboration in building a New India. Notably, Japan is a home to nearly 40,000 members of the Indian diaspora also. It is also worth mentioning that in March 2022 in Delhi, Prime Minister Modi and Japani PM Kishida laid out a roadmap for further deepening and broadening special strategic and global partnership. The PM has hoped that both countries will be contributing towards creating an open, free, inclusive and secure Indo-Pacific region, where everyone respects the territorial integrity of others by following international laws and conventions.

QUAD grouping is one platform from where both the economies are ensuring the same as the agenda items of this dialogue are relevant in terms of regional stability and peace. Through Quad, India and Japan, along with the Australia and US have now formed a new security architecture. And the increase in active discussions and summits lately here has caught global attention, including that of China. The Quad engagement is anchored in the shared values and commitment to the principles of democracy, international law and rules based international order as also a vision for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. Since its first Summit, Quad has been working to implement a positive and constructive agenda with a strong focus on enabling peace, prosperity, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The issues discussed in the summit include climate action, decarbonized green shipping network in the Indo-Pacific, making use of clean hydrogen and making it more accessible, pooling capacities to assist Indo-Pacific countries in climate monitoring and information sharing, supporting sustainable and demand driven infrastructure in the region, cooperation on critical and emerging technologies, biotechnology, diversification of semiconductor supply chain, security of critical cyber infrastructure, last mile delivery of essentials, health security, genomic surveillance, clinical trials, and pandemic preparedness among others.

Further, the evident polarisation in the International system in the aftermath of Ukraine-Russia conflict, Western repulsion towards Russia, and even US-China trade tussle, is already putting a lot of unsaid pressure on other economies to pick sides. Amid such a sensitive and changing World order, India and Japan, have been able to position themselves as two aspiring global powers that can bring non-western perspectives to discussions based on dialogue and security.

The concept of cultural diplomacy refers to the exchange of ideas, information, art and other important aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding. Therefore, cultural diplomacy is always considered a long term investment, creating a positive view and impressions of a country among the people of the other country. Many nations, especially India, have gotten over the perspective of seeing military might and economics as the sole factor defining the foreign policy directives. The realities of the 21st century are as such that a nation cannot command power in the international system on the basis of hard power alone, it needs soft diplomacy too. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Nepal and the foundation-laying ceremony of the India International Centre for Buddhist Culture in Lumbini was one of the main highlights of the visit. Nepal and India enjoy age-old historical, cultural, traditional, religious and social relations. These close, comprehensive and multidimensional relations often add value to their bilateral economic ties and help understand each other’s aspirations and sensitivities. But mainly it is ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, that has always guided India’s overtures towards the world including its neighbours. And this phenomenon started happening thousands of years earlier in Indian context, when cultural and religious emissaries from India moved around the globe with life messages.

Religious tourism is another way to spread this soft power across India’s borders, including through the ‘Buddhist Circuit’. This constitutes a journey purely for internal peace. It is a journey through austere stupas and ancient monasteries reverberating with the mystical chants of sacred Buddhist mantras. Every point on the Buddhist circuit has a history steeped in myth and meaning, every monument stands testimony to faith fused into reality. Another example is the ‘Ramayana Circuit’, which is equally immense.

Though, India possesses a relatively small chunk of Buddhist population, it is still legitimate for it to endorse Buddhist diplomacy given a number of reasons, including the fact that the faith originated in India. More than 95% of Buddhist populace resides in the Asian continent and is highly intrinsic to a number of countries including Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Laos as far as their national values and identities are concerned. An already well-established international Buddhism network across the geographical spread of these countries plays a key role in lives of millions of people following this faith, a fact churning a lot of potential for Indian Foreign Policy. These countries also matter for India to counter the Chinese influence in the region. These countries are important for India’s Foreign Policy, a fact that was best highlighted when India changed its ‘Look East’ Policy with ‘Act East’. This move may lead to creating a strong impact in the realm of cultural diplomacy, which is also an integral part of the ‘Panchamrit’ resolution of the present government. The government adopted five principles under this as new pillars of India’s foreign policy structure. Apart from ‘Sanskriti evam Sabhyata’, meaning cultural and civilisational linkages, other four prinicples are ‘Samman’, ‘Samvad’, ‘Samriddhi’, and ‘Suraksha’.

India’s cultural diplomacy lies in its love, tolerance and understanding, which are more relevant than ever before in a world where the forces of fundamentalism and extremism are raising their ugly heads. It’s composite culture spread worldwide, reflects the evolution of its own history. The manner in which India seamlessly absorbed other cultures but never lost its own sheen, is something rarely found elsewhere. Cultural bonding can also be one of the ways to prevent conflict and promote peace. Indian spirituality has had a global presence for centuries. One of its important manifestations in today’s world is the large number of Yoga centres spread across the world. At the personal initiative of PM Modi, the UN General Assembly recognised 21st June as International Day of Yoga.

India has a long and deep tradition of contributing to UN peacekeeping. Over 200,000 Indians have served in 49 of the 71 UN peacekeeping missions established around the world since 1948. More than 90,000 Indian Army soldiers have served in various parts as a part of these imperative missions globally. Extending support to UN peacekeeping endeavors, the Indian Army, which is the world’s third-largest troop contributor to peacekeeping operations, has contributed outstanding force commanders, elite military contingents, impartial observers, and dedicated staff officers. Continuing the role of extending support at a time of exigency to the friendly nations, the Indian Army in February this year, dispatched an infantry battalion as a part of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in the oil-rich Abyei region of Africa, which sits between northern and southern Sudan. The UNISFA is authorized to protect civilians and humanitarian workers in the region.

India has also been a regular contributor of women peacekeepers on UN missions. In 2007, India became the first country to deploy an all-women contingent to a UN peacekeeping mission and from 2007 to 2016, there were nine rotations of all-female police units from India, whose main responsibilities were to provide 24-hour guard duty, public order management, conducting night patrols and helping to build the capacity of local security institutions. India has further contributed to the UN mission by providing doctors for medical care of the local population in missions around the world. Currently, there are more than 6,700 troops and police from India who have been deployed to UN peacekeeping missions, the vast majority of them are in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in South Sudan.

The main duty of many peacekeepers includes protecting civilians who are under physical threat by patrolling in high-risk areas and by escorting humanitarian convoys that bring assistance to those most in need. In this manner, Indian peacekeepers ensure that the much-needed help reaches local populations safely. The contingent is also well known for its frequent mobile veterinary clinics in various parts of Upper Nile State. Thousands of cows, goats, donkeys, sheep, and other animals, including the occasional dog, have been given precious veterinary services rarely available to cattle owners in the country. The multifaceted work by Indian engineering troops includes rehabilitating arterial roads in the region, including the 75-kilometer-long route from Malakal to Abwong via Balliet in South Sudan.

Time and again, India has contributed to the peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations, not for any strategic gain, but in the service of an ideal. The daunting tasks that include protecting civilians, undertaking a variety of engineering assignments, and offering health services, are some of the capabilities of 1,160 Indian peacekeepers who were recently decorated with UN medals for their exceptional service in South Sudan. Besides, India has deployed its peacekeeping battalion in countries like Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Lebanon, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Congo, Sudan and Golan Heights. Further, Observers and staff personnel have made their contributions to the global peace efforts in Central America, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Liberia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Congo, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Sudan and Golan Heights.

PM Modi’s Paris visit is all about adding more strategic blocks to a deep relationship. Continuity of French Government in the form of re-election of Emmanuel Macron can be considered as good news for both EU and India-France ties. In last five years, Macron, who also became the first French president to clinch a re-election in 20 years, has emerged as a leader with a centrist vision for France and instances of keeping global perspective at centre for his decisions. Under Emmanuel Macron, who shares a personal rapport with PM Modi, the bond between both the regionally-important nations has deepened. Both sides have actively engaged and been respectful towards each other’s core interests across many sectors, including defence, maritime security, climate, economy, etc. With France, India is looking towards manufacturing and export of emerging and critical defence technologies without any license regime or any legal encumbrances. Under the ‘Make in India’ policy of PM Modi, India is looking towards France to make Safran aircraft engines and make air independent propulsion submarines to utilize the already existing manufacturing line at the Naval Dockyards in Mumbai.

Developments and situations in the Indo-Pacific region particularly is of much importance for France. France is considered an Indo-Pacific power as it has overseas territories in the region like Mayotte, La Réunion, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia. India’s concern and actions it takes to protect its territorial interests, especially countering the growing Chinese influence in the high waters, is what coincides with France’s vision and concerns too. India also needs France’s support and assistance to ensure the same and focus on better maritime patrolling. Election of Marie Le Pen as French President, would have led to complications, given the far-right politician’s inclination towards a protectionist economy as well as towards China and dismissal of the European Union. All these factors greatly concern India for innumerable factors including, International trade, security, cooperation, global support and territorial integrity.

India has also been trying to finalise its long-pending Free Trade Agreement with EU for quite some time. While both parties finally putting aggressive efforts to achieve the same, election of Marie Le Pen as President of France would have caused direct and indirect implications for India, given Pen’s earlier expressed interest in having a “Frexit”. This could not have been favorable news to India, which sees France as its “entry point” or a gateway to facilitate an intimate connection with Europe. “In security, France is already among India’s foremost partners,” EAM S.Jaishankar had said once adding further that, with the EU, India “now has an enhanced partnership and operational level of access.”

France has also been supporting India’s claim for permanent membership at UNSC and the reforms of the United Nations. France’s support was vital in India’s accession to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) and Australia Group (AG). France continues to support India’s bid for accession to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). India and France have consistently condemned terrorism and have resolved to work together for adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in the UN. The areas of defence and security cooperation, space cooperation and civil nuclear cooperation constitute the principal pillars of the strategic partnership of both countries. India and France also have a robust economic partnership and share a close degree of convergence on a range of regional and global issues also.

Denmark’s PM gave a tour of her residence to PM Modi and accompanied him to the Indian Diaspora event. The visit of PM Narendra Modi to Denmark puts the spotlight back on the Nordic countries, which are often ranked as the happiest countries topping the Human Development Indices (HDI). Nordic countries include Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. In the recent happiness race, Finland stood at the top for the fifth year in a row, closely followed by Denmark. This makes it interesting to know as to what pedestals them as the happiest countries globally and in what way both sides (India & Nordic) can expand their collaboration and mutually benefit from that.

PM Modi in his departure statement ahead of this Europe visit had said, “Nordic countries are important partners for India in sustainability, renewable energy, digitisation and innovation. The visit will help in expanding our multifaceted cooperation with the Nordic region.” The first India-Nordic Summit had taken place in 2018, which provided a perfect platform to come together and realise the full potential of the partnership. Now, the second India-Nordic Summit with Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway acquires greater importance, where India discusses a whole host of cooperation. The agenda of the summit includes subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, sustainability, digitization, technology, renewable energy, global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region.

In the broader picture, mutual economic interests have been the primary driver of the relations between India and Nordic countries where both have put ‘ease of doing business’ at the core of developmental strategy. In fact, in the last few years India has opened up more ground for investment within the nation and abroad. Of the five Nordic countries, four are among the top 20 trading partners of India in Europe – Sweden at 9th, Finland 10th, Denmark 12th and Norway at 14th rank.

Many of the Nordic companies have invested in India in various sectors. Sweden & Finland have invested substantially in India. Similarly, 200 Danish companies and around 100 Norwegian companies are engaged in India either through joint ventures or through wholly owned subsidiaries. Over the last few decades, Indian investment in Nordic countries has also increased with over 70 big Indian companies having their presence in Nordic region. However, there is still tremendous scope for expanding economic ties. Both sides also share democratic values and support for the multilateral rules-based world order. India presents an ideal opportunity for these countries because of its large market and the fastest growing economy.

From political and economic tensions in Sri Lanka to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the world’s political landscape seems grim and rickety right now. As PM Narendra Modi begins his three-day visit to Europe with a spirit high on multilateralism, renewed relations with the European Continent may allow India to explore plurilateral arrangements to generate more global opportunities and solutions in trade, connectivity and new technologies.

The visit of PM Modi to Europe also could not have been timed better from the view point of the old economies of Europe; and India, an emerging power in a multipolar world, spearheading global development. The EU has been able to stabilise and integrate Europe to a good extent. The continent, a group of old economies with same socioeconomic fabric, however has a large part of population that suffers with depressive disorders with higher prevalences in women, the middle-aged, less privileged groups, and those experiencing social adversity. Prevalence rates are much higher in more economically developed nations as there’s nothing much to build and innovate. India which has become severely vocal to promote Yoga, Ayurveda, and Spiritualism as key to rejuvenation of body and mind, promises unprecedented change to the world. With powerful initiatives like Make In India, endorsement of Indian Tourism and exploration of niche tourism, introduction of PLI scheme in various sectors, endorsement of UPI in foreign countries, efforts to increase FDI, new FTA & Trade strategies, etc. India has been trying to convey to the world its readiness for cultural exchange, better economic partnership, and its newfound openness to engage with communities across the globe for mutual development. As diversities change rapidly across the world, a new perspective is needed to manage religious and cultural differences with innovation and soft power diplomacy.

Similarly, India also seems to have realised that a traditional approach to Europe is not appropriate amid the changing World order. Approaching the European continent through its relations with individual countries instead of EU may not strengthen the relations as desired. India has recognised that it the European collective which is its largest trade, key technological and investment partner and can be increasingly important ally to count upon in times of crisis related to Indian Ocean and the wider Middle East. Hence, an FTA with EU, with aggressive efforts being put from both sides to reach to an agreement, would result in super strengthened ties.

Acknowledging and taking on to the needs of changing paradigm, both Europe and India have been engaging in rolling out new initiatives and holding discussions around subjects of economic & technological relevance. The EU is on the front foot in designing global rules in field like protection of personal data; setting up human-centric standards for the use of AI, actively acting on its take on taxation in a digital world. EU has given its nod to new standards on industrial subsidies, largely seeking a renewal within WTO and pinning China. Majority of the above mentioned factors naturally fall in line with the vision of New India, with security of high waters, protection of Indo-Pacific region, diplomatic support at International Forums and greater trade and defence engagement being areas of utmost priority and potentials.

Today, India is the third largest economy by purchasing power parity (PPP) and is fast racing to become the third ranked economy by nominal GDP also. The reformist measures being adopted by the government, are sure to transform its economy further in the years to come. Moreover, with its fastest growing GDP among larger economies, around 40 crore middle class and around 140 crore population, India in any case becomes a darling for the global investors with top economic powers wanting to fortify economic ties.

While India’s soft power helped the country in its approach to leave its imprint in the world engagement, its hard power approach laid the ground for the country to serve its national security interests and objectives. Despite the geo-political challenges, India has been displaying its hard power on the strength of its economy and military. From fighting challenges of terrorism, expansionism to working on lifting country’s economic resources, India has been quick in enhancing its vibrant hard power inheritance.

India’s tangible culture nurtured over the years has captivated the world like anything. Be it growing international fan-base for the Indian Cinemas or the famous Indian delicacy ‘Samosas’ hitting the kitchen of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, or the quick adaption of the Indian “Namaste” by the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, India has been successful in using its soft power asset in its engagement with the world. Similarly, the establishment of luxury Taj Hotel properties in Boston, San Francisco and London further adds to this side of the country. Monuments like Taj Mahal and others attract people in millions from world over. India has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than majority of the countries. Further, in the times of global crisis like coronavirus pandemic, India stood up on its ideals- “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, and extended its unwavering commitment for the inclusion, plurality of all in the form of “Vaccine Diplomacy”.

Hard power is when the country uses the military and economic means as an influence on the behaviour or interests of other political bodies. It is a form of political power which is often so aggressive that is it uses coercion. Whereas Soft power is the ability to attract and co-opt, instead of coercing, shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction.

On India’s emergence as ‘hard power’, the Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur shared a story from the past as he spoke at the Raisina Dialogue-2022. He recalled a newspaper once referring India as ‘a country of snake charmers and beggars’. ‘But within three years after India conducted nuclear test under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, things changed considerably and world started looking at us in a different way’. “To exist and stay relevant, a nation needs to have Hard Power. But to maintain friendly relationship and to exist beyond boundaries, a nation needs soft power as well, as it touches hearts.. a relationship between Hard power and soft power could be like two batsman at crease with one complimenting other in running,” the MIB Minister added.