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On the contrary, so much of diplomacy is about chemistry and credibility that the human factor is always central to an accurate judgement.
India has today moved out of the defensive non-aligned posture, engaging multiple nations on a range of issues with equal confidence. It is also a greater contributor to solutions, regional or global. This marks its emergence as vishwa mitra, a partner of the world that is making a greater difference with each passing year.
He was clearly impressed by the economic and technology advancements of Japan but also by their social cohesion and cultural pride.
A nationalist outlook will naturally produce a nationalist diplomacy, and it is something that the world will need to get used to.
Economic priorities at home will always be a powerful driver of policies abroad.
What the public sees is an elegant swan; underneath, there is furious paddling.
Whether drawing strength from its heritage and culture or approaching challenges with the optimism of democracy and technology, this is certainly a New India, indeed an India that is able to define its own interests, articulate its own positions, find its own solutions and advance its own model. In short, this is an India that is more Bharat.
International relations for the last quarter of the century have been dominated by five phenomena: globalization, rebalancing, multipolarity, impact of technology and the games that nations have always played.
Life is rarely a black-and-white choice, and appreciating the complexities of decision-making is an essential part of grasping international relations. A major rising power, however, needs more than just an accurate landscape analysis and the ability to act on it. It must, first of all, be confident of its own values and beliefs and base its policies on those convictions. These will draw from the totality of its culture, heritage and traditions. That is why India can only rise when it is truly Bharat.
Diplomacy, thus, has a responsibility as both the shield and sword of a polity.
Often, it is lost on them that others have different traditions, practices and yardsticks, and that the West itself would not necessarily come out well if they were evaluated objectively and publicly.
Moreover, these attitudes do not stop at advocacy and extend to promoting an actionable agenda as well. That comes into conflict with post-colonial polities like India, which are reasserting their identities and standing their ground.
Forging a united front against the West and suggesting that Asia must be for Asians are tried-and-tested tactics that appeal to the insecurity of the post-colonial world. The reality, however, is remorselessly unsentimental and much more competitive.
It is often said that in India, we make the changes we must rather than the changes we should. In other words, we react to the crisis of the moment and slip back into a default position of complacency once that appears addressed. And the truth is that this is pretty much what has happened to us since the early 1990s.
By firmly establishing a digital backbone across the country, 800 million plus Indians received food support and half of them also received money in their bank accounts during the Covid pandemic. Think about the enormity of this effort: it is like supporting the entire European and American populations at the same time.
The Jan Dhan initiative is like banking the US and Mexico at one go; the Saubhagya scheme is like electrifying all of Russia; Ujjwala is equivalent to changing the cooking fuel for all of Germany; and the Awas Yojana is like housing all of Japan.
The direct benefit transfers (DBTs) from India’s digitalization have also ended a long tradition of leakages.
It could be larger or smaller nations, nearer or distant ones, historical emigration or recent movements. Indians matter because they are truly global.
The pervasive spread of the Indian community has been a natural accompaniment of globalization. It is obvious to associate it with skills and talents in various geographies.
