NEW DELHI, Dec 25:
The outgoing year would be marked by several new developments and initiatives in India’s foreign relations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi due to which the country made its presence felt in the global arena with greater force.
However, in the immediate neighbourhood, there was a mixed bag of success and failure, hope and disappointment. The year would be noted for the success India had in making the developed world agree to its position on food subsidies that finally led to end the stalemate at WTO. Despite enormous pressure from all quarters and allegations of sabotaging the WTO deal, India did not budge from its position holding that it had the right to feed its poor and it would not agree to anything that jeopardised it. Under an agreement reached with the US on public stockholding, India would now lift a veto on a global agreement on streamlining customs rules but on the condition that the “peace clause” which would ensure uninterrupted implementation of its food security programme, will continue indefinitely till a permanent solution was found by the WTO.
Under the the Bali agreement, the peace clause, which gives legal security to member countries and protects them from being challenged under other WTO agreements, was to continue till 2017. The US had been opposing India’s food subsidies arguing that it distorted trade.
The deal with US is considered a major victory for India under the Modi government.
The launch of the BRICS Development Bank with India heading the bank for the first five year was a major achievements of the grouping consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The breakthrough came in the very first overseas visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Brazil where the sixth BRICS Summit was held in July.
The bank will be called the New Development Bank, a name suggested by Mr Modi.
India along with Brazil fought hard for having equally divided subscribed Capital of the bank which would be 50 billion dollar. China wanted that economic strength of a member nation should be the measure for determining contribution to the bank. This would mean that members Contributing more would have greater control on the bank. But India was successful in resisting this proposal.
India was also successful in making the G20 countries endorse her demand for more effective mechanism to share information on black money.
Mr Modi made a strong pitch for repatriation of black money at the G20 Summit in Brisbane in November. He expressed India’s support for a new global standard on automatic exchange of information and called upon all tax havens to provide information for tax purposes. The new global standard will be instrumental in getting information relating to unaccounted money stashed abroad and enable its eventual repatriation.
Mr Modi moved from Australia to Fiji in a bid to extend India’s footprints in the Pacific. This was the first visit of any Indian Prime Minister To the Pacific island country in the last 33 years. Late Indira Gandhi had visited the country in 1983.
The successful attempt at a reconnect with Fiji, which has large number of people of Indian origin, is being seen in the backdrop of the increasing Chinese presence in the region. During his Australia visit, Mr Modi was successful in pushing for an early conclusion of a nuclear deal with the country which has vast uranium reserves.
Earlier, in September, Mr Modi visited the US where he held Summit with President Obama besides addressing the UN General assembly session and meeting a large number of world leaders. While the US visit did not result in any immediate tangibles, it helped in rebooting the relationship between the two strategic partners that had come under severe strain in the wake of the Devyani Khobragade episode. Mr Modi’s famous Madison Square speech to Indian diaspora spelt out the new vision for India and new opportunities that sent a message much farther beyond the audience present. During the year, India also hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for the annual Summit at which the two countries gave a major push to their nuclear ties, and announced various steps for redefining their economic partnership that was at present much less than its potential.
India also advanced its Look East policy by reinventing with an ‘Act East policy’ under which it intensified its economic, trade, investment, political and security ties with the countries of South East Asia.
President Pranab Mukherjee visited Vietnam and announced 100 million Dollar Line of Credit to the country for defence procurement. Later, the Prime Minister of Vietnam visited India in October.
Mr Modi made a highly successful visit to Japan, giving a further push to the already very vibrant partnership between the two countries. He brought back commitment of 35 billion dollar investment in India by Japan.
India also engaged the Arab countries and the Gulf region that has seven million Indians working there. External Affairs Minister Sushma swaraj visited the UAE and invited the Indians and Gulf industry leaders to invest in India in the new conducive environs.
Mr Modi had a meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia at which the two leaders strongly expressed the desire to deepen and extend their cooperation to new areas. India, while maintaining its good relations with Israel, also made it clear that there was no change in its policy on Palestine.
However, the rise of the ISIS gave a serious cause of concern to India as it is ending the year with 39 Indian workers still in the captivity of insurgents, with very little known about their fate.
India also extended its outreach to the Latin American and Caribbean countries during the year. Mr Modi, during his visit to Brazil for BRICS Summit, held a special meeting with leaders of over a dozen countries of the region. However, India had some disappointments in store when it came to its immediate neighbourhood despite Mr Modi’s attempt to reach out to the region immediately after winning the Lok Sabha elections. He had invited all the heads of states of neigbouring and SAARC countries to his oath-taking ceremony. During the bilateral with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, the two leaders decided that their foreign secretaries would meet to explore possibility of resuming the peace dialogue suspended in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. But just ahead of August 25 talks, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit invited Kashmir separatist leaders for talks, provoking India to call off the foreign secretaries’ meeting in Islamabad.
The development had given a big jolt to the renewed atmosphere of friendship created following Mr Modi’s invitation to Mr Sharif for his oath-taking ceremony.
Though relations with Pakistan suffered a jolt, Mr Modi was successful in infusing a fresh vigour in India’s relations with other neigbours like Bhutan and Nepal. His first visit abroad was to Bhutan followed by Nepal.
Relations with Bangladesh continued to be cordial, but no headway could be made towards conclusion of the Teesta Water accord that was planned during Mr Modi’s predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in September 2011. The Land Boundary Agreement too could not be ratified by Parliament in the just concluded winter session, though the BJP Government is now all inclined to support the accord.
Coming to its biggest neighbour China, India, despite irritants like frequent incursions by Chinese troops in the Western Sector, was able to maintain the momentum of its economic, political and security ties.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India in September and made Gujarat his first destination where he was hosted by Mr Modi with all warmth and grandeur.
Mr Xi described the bilateral relations as being “at a new starting point.” The two leaders discussed all outstanding matters and agreed to resolve their boundary dispute soon. China, for the first time, supported India’s bid for full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at which New Delhi has only observer status at present. The year also saw the holding of the 18th SAARC Summit, at which not much headway could be made on regional connectivity due to the reluctance shown by Pakistan. Chinese bid to get full membership of the organisation could not succeed this time too, which India counted as among its gains.
India’s relations with Sri Lanka had no major irritants this year but New Delhi had some moments of concerns when a Chinese submarine made a call on the Colombo port. However, India’s concerns were dismissed by the government of the Island country saying it was a routine call for refueling from a ship that was returning from an anti-piracy operation in Somalia. India successfully pursued the Sri Lankan government to free five Indian fishermen from drug smuggling charges for which they were served Death sentence, and repatriate them back to their home country.
While India continued to maintain its cordial relations and cooperative partnership with Afghanistan, the coming draw down of the US forces from the country and possible bounce back of insurgents could pose a fresh challenge to its engagement with one of its most trusted friends.
New Delhi also worked through the year to deepen its economic and trade partnership with mineral resource rich African countries with whom it already has close political cooperation. As India is looking for diversifying its oil basket, it sees a great opportunity in some countries of the continent with oil reserves.
(UNI)
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