Global Politicians of Indian Origin

Now, with Rishi Sunak emerging as the frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson as the conservative party leader and next Prime Minister of Britain, the fast growing stature and importance of Indian diaspora on foreign lands, has once again come in rave discussion, capturing the flying imagination of many. Sunak, has already won two rounds of votes of party MPs for the position, attracting heavyweight support from former cabinet colleagues. His policy of ‘whatever it takes’ to help the people through pandemic as Chancellor of the country, won him immense support from people and party. Earlier, UK home secretary Priti Patel also attracted much of the attention, besides several parliamentarians dominating the political horizon of many countries.

There is a long list of more than two dozen heads of state and heads of government of the sovereign countries who are of full or partial Indian origin. Large countries like US, Canada and other have several Indians, who have ascended to top leadership positions in the government they are representing now including Kamala Devi Harris being current vice president of the United States or the former first Indian origin Prime Minister of Ireland Leo Varadkar. According to the Ministry of External Affairs report, there are more than 3 crore NRIs and OCIs residing outside India with around 200+ Indian origin people already serving in their most significant capacity in 15 countries.

Every year around 25 lakhs Indians migrate overseas, reflecting the full multiplicity of the rich Indian social, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity of the land of their origin. India has always been sensitive to the emotions of the diaspora and vice-e-versa. Acting in true spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the diaspora also bridge in the crevices for wider well being and prosperity.
The current government at the Centre launched a scheme called ‘Know India Program’ in 2016 for diaspora engagement, which helps familiarize Indian-origin youth with their Indian roots and contemporary India. The way Indian Government has been trying to reach out to the people of Indian origin in last eight years and opening up of a new range of opportunities for emerging generations, has inspired them to also explore new avenues and sectors of mutually beneficial interactions, which include investment in India, transfer of skills and technologies and charitable works.

Indian diaspora is one of the richest minorities in many developed countries, lobbying for favourable terms regarding India’s interests out of their love for their country of origin. For example, US has around 4.2 million people of Indian origin and they are the most educated and richest minority. According to the World Bank, the estimated U.S. 87 billion dollar in official remittances was received in India in 2021, which is the world’s largest such flow and amounted to nearly 15% of all such global transfers. People of Indian origin started migrating overseas in large numbers in the 19th century. This migration was driven by the economic compulsions of the colonial powers. Initially, Indians spread to African, Southeast Asia, Fiji and the Caribbean in response to the enormous demand for cheap labour arising immediately after the abolition of slavery in 1833-1834 by the British and then migrated in the midst of the 20th century in search of better life and livelihood to countries like US, UK and others.

Coming back to Rishi Sunak’s race for the Prime Ministership, the road ahead still looks full of thorns and will be closely watched by the political observers as frontrunners in the past stumbled in the end. The new PM is expected to be announced on 5 September. Whoever wins the race, it will be the most diverse and representative leadership contest in UK history.

India, Indian Ocean and Blue Revolution

India’s role in the Indian Ocean Region is now increasingly been seen as that of a protector internationally. As India looks to counter growing Chinese influence, the urgency of completing construction of new aircraft carriers and attack submarines, modernizing India’s naval assets, and improving its maritime domain awareness capabilities occupy center stage. India recently launched its ambitious First manned ocean Mission ‘Samudrayan’, for which, a deep-submergence vehicle called Matsya 6000 is being indigenously developed in the country. With the launch of this Unique Ocean Mission, India joins the elite club of nations such as the USA, Russia, Japan, France, and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities. Not only has this opened a new chapter for India to explore ocean resources for drinking water, clean energy, but it has also marked India as one of the leading crusaders of Blue economy.

In 2015, India had initiated the very ambitious Sagarmala project, which the Cabinet approved to promote port-led development in India. The project, which aims to harness economic potentiial out of the country’s 7500 km long coastline, had been rolled out for boosting infrastructure for transporting goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Establishing a robust maritime infrastructure and strong maritime strategy requires massive integration of national inland waterways, road and railway corridors, creation of special economic zones, well-planned industrial and logistics park, dedicated freight corridors project, etc. all of which are either at prep stage or already functioning in the country. Announcement of Gati Shakti also forms a major part of this full scale integration. Various other efforts in this direction in last 7-8 years include the agreement on maritime shipping and passenger & cruise shipping with neighbouring Bangladesh, pact with Sri Lanka on a maritime rescue centre, MoU with Spain on Cooperation in Port matters, with UAE on Institutional Cooperation on Maritime Transport, and various other maritime-related agreements with Netherlands, South Korea, Austria, etc. Re-Drawal of the High Risk Area in the Indian Ocean was a major gain for India on Global Maritime Stage in 2015, when the International bodies had agreed to India’s efforts to push back the High Risk Area (HRA) from 78 degrees East longitude to the 65 degrees East longitude.

India has abundant natural resources in the form it 7516 km long and rich coastline, a strategic location just above the Indian Ocean, Lakshwadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands as Union Territories further into the high waters, all providing it with unprecedented opportunities to use all these resources to take its economic growth to new highs and simultaneously become an influential stakeholder in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). When the NDA government assumed power in 2014, enhancing maritime power and infrastructure was one of the most urgent projects to take up. Changing its policy from ‘Look East’ to a stronger stance of ‘Act East’ formed a part of India’s commitment to strengthen and focus more on its Asia-Pacific connects, especially keeping the ASEAN countries at the centre of all the strategic and diplomatic decisions. A lot of it is rooted in the fact that these South Asian countries form a good block for India in terms of total trade, increasing export, attracting investments. These countries become even more important due to their proximity to the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and important straits that are used as trade routes like the Strait of Malacca. Some of these nations also possess small island territories and ports at strategic locations, which become significant in terms of maritime security and partnerships. Similarly, in the West, with active operationalisation and usage of the Chabahar in the West, a model is now in place as India has been able to look after both business and strategic ties.

India has also been actively able to augment its sea stakes and showcase its maritime interests through active naval diplomacy, vocal advocacy of sea affairs and the need of strengthening maritime positioning by Prime Minister Modi at various International forums, strong naval decision and joint exercises, humanitarian and anti-piracy cooperation, etc. He has spelt out his vision, “To me the Blue Wheel or Chakra in our national flag represents the potential of the Blue Revolution or the Ocean Economy. That is how central the ocean economy is to us.” Indian Naval Ships and aircraft are regularly deployed on Mission-Based Deployments in Indian Ocean Region to enhance maritime security. It also undertakes surveillance to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness and address contingencies that may arise. The 2021 launch of ‘The Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030 will also play a major role in massively increasing India’s visibility in the international maritime sector, and strengthening maritime relations with different countries.

Presidential Tussles, India and Beyond

With the announcement of candidates by both ruling and opposition parties for the presidential election, curtains have finally come down on high-pitched speculation spree on candidacy that has been going on for quite some time. Undoubtedly, the President of India is the most significant position in Indian democratic system. A host of articles – from 52 to 62 of the constitution – provide information about the election process, powers, functions and impeachment process of the President. Being the head of the state, the first citizen of the country and the most important part of the Union Executive along with Vice-President, Prime Minister, Council of Ministers and Attorney-General of India, President of India is also a symbol of solidarity, unity and integrity of the nation. Hence, the election to this top job becomes all the more important for the nation.

In between, owing to us deriving much of the inspiration from the British constitution, a comparison is often drawn between President of India and British Queen. Moreover, they do share several similar rights and powers in their respective nations like both can summon the parliament, however the fact remains that the Constitution of India gives much more power to the President to protect the constitutional democracy of the country. A British Monarch can be questioned by the House of Lords, whereas the President of India is not answerable to any court. When parliament is in session, the British Monarch is restricted to visit foreign lands, while there is no such restriction ever applies to the President of India. British Crown is hereditary, whereas Indian President is elected every five years.

Sometimes, comparisons are also drawn between Indian and American system of governance. However, it is widely regarded that Indian constitution favours pluralism in true sense more than the US system of governance, inspiring even a small group of people to form their political party and participate in the election process, whereas American system majorly favours only two party system and elections are very costly, making it very difficult for a simple individual to go up in the political hierarchy, however in Indian system even a poor can wish for the top job.

This has resulted in making the US model highly bipolar deepening the democratic divide in a very deploring way. The ever-charged tussle between the Republicans and Democrats is restricted not just to the political corridors of the United Nations, not just to the people living in America but traverses beyond the US borders, globally. On the other hand, In India there’s multi-layered, multi-faceted prospects, opportunities and opinions. The systems here share a beautiful blend with the country’s diversity of religion, culture, gender, social background, language etc. “It is the strength of Babasaheb’s Constitution that a gentleman hailing from deprived and exploited class has become the president (Ram Nath Kovind), while the vice-president ( M Venkaiah Naidu) is from a farmer’s family,” PM Modi once said in a rally.

Moreover, India is a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic with a parliamentary form of government which is federal in structure with unitary features. There is a council of ministers with the Prime Minster as its head to advice the President who is the constitutional head of the country. Similarly in states there is a council of ministers with the chief minister as its head, who advices the Governor.

Future-proofing Pharmacy of the World

The world witnessed India’s quest to combat COVID-19 not just strategically, economically, socially and with regard to health provisions and hospitality, but also bio-technologically as it came up with many successful vaccines. This is no mean feat for a country which had been considered very poor in the domain of research, especially bio-technology and medicine. Now, it seems it is a different world out here. Today, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the two-day Bio-Tech Startup Expo 2022 being held in New Delhi. Further, India recently saw inauguration of the National Facility for Gene Function in Health and Disease (NFGFHD) in Pune. In Parallel, North India’s first biotech park was inaugurated in J&K’s Kathua along with the launch of a Single National Portal For Biotech Startups by Union Minister of State For Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh. In a recent development, IISC scientists have also designed a new class of artificial peptides or miniproteins that they say can render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 inactive. With such a motivated and encouraging developments, India is beaming with bio-technological breakthroughs, slowly forming a favorable ecosystem for both research and innovation in the country.

Prospects are galore for the sector as it is one of the most demand driven sectors. The campaigns for ease of living in India over the years, have opened up new possibilities for the biotech sector. The developments in health, agriculture, energy, natural farming, bio-fortified seeds are creating new avenues for it. However, we still need to work on the efficiency and productivity and cost-effectiveness of agriculture, nutritional security, molecular medicine, environmentally sustainable technologies, scientific and technological empowerment of human resource, a strong infrastructure for research and commercialization, the relevant knowledge base, nurturing the leads of potential utility and bringing the bio-products to the market place to take the sector to new heights.

Five big reasons why India is being considered a land of opportunities in the field of biotech are- its diverse population and diverse climatic zones, talented human capital pool, increasing efforts for ease of doing business, the demand for bio-products and the track record of its success. Furthermore, to transcend government-centric approach, the Centre is encouraging a culture of providing new enabling interfaces. Platforms like BIRAC are being strengthened. The government, through new institutions, is bringing together the best minds of the industry on a single platform. Trust in the skill and innovation of India’s IT professionals in the world is at new heights. The country gets new breakthroughs from research and academia, with the industry helping in what is a real world view and the government providing the necessary policy environment and necessary infrastructure.

The encouraging initiatives being continuously taken by India for the sector, has manifested in creating robust startup ecosystem in biotech sector also. In the last 8 years, the number of biotech start-ups in the country has increased to more than five thousand. While, the total number of startups of all kinds, has risen to 70 thousand from a few hundreds in last 8 years (operating in about 60 different industries). This way every 14th startup operates in the bio technology sector with more than 1100 such biotech startups emerging last year itself. The shift of talent towards the sector induces a great deal of investment, resulting in the number of investors being risen by 9 times and biotech incubators and funding for them being increased by 7 times. The number of biotech incubators has increased from 6 in 2014 to 75 now. Biotech products have also increased from 10 to more than 700 today.

A frontline area of science with immense potential for the benefit of the human kind, biotechnology sector is helping to heal the world by harnessing nature’s unfathomable potential and people’s very complex genetic makeup. By reducing rates of infectious disease, it is saving millions of lives and changing the odds of life-threatening conditions by tailoring treatments to minimize the health risks and side effects by creating more precise tools. These are the reasons why India’s bio-economy has grown 8 times in the last 8 years and from 10 billion dollar to 80 billion dollar. More importantly, India is not too far from reaching the league of top-10 countries in Biotech’s global ecosystem.

India is all for mutual respect

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.

It’s time for Indo-Africa

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.

Indispensable Partnership of India and Japan

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.

Inherent Strengths of India to build Global Soft Power

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.

Committed to Global Peace

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.

Strengthening India-France Ties

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.