S. Jaishankar
Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
It is a bit dizzy to keep pace with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar’s frenetic diplomatic itinerary. Since late December, the foreign minister has visited Washington D.C. thrice, Spain and the UAE for bilateral visits, Paris, Munich and Oman to attend conferences, and in Johannesburg for the G20 foreign ministers meeting.
I struggled to find a peer foreign minister in Asia who has a comparable peripatetic approach to diplomacy. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi does not even come close. He started the year with a traditional visit to Africa and has been visiting Europe and New York last week, and joined Jaishankar at Johannesburg. Other ministers from the region fall far, far behind in their efforts.
What explains India’s diplomatic surge and is it yielding dividends for the country? The answer, to put it diplomatically, is a qualified yes, with some nos, and a lot of ifs.
For starters, Jaishankar is a career diplomat turned foreign minister, which is an all too rare phenomenon on the world stage. India, on the other hand, has had a reasonable share of star diplomats turned politicians. It is of course never a given that a career diplomat in New Delhi’s South Block, where the External Affairs ministry is located, would have an opportunity to rise to ministerial office.
Indian politicians, given all of their faults, are natural talent spotters and this explains the rise of Jaishankar and more dramatically that of late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who served as a career civil servant in the finance ministry and central bank for several years before jumping into politics.
Having served as Ambassador to Washington D.C., Beijing, Singapore, and the Czech republic, Jaishankar enjoys a huge comparative advantage over his global peers, because of his familiarity with the machine and machinations of modern diplomacy. He also became India’s foreign minister at a time of great flux in world affairs. The tussle between America, the incumbent superpower, and China, a rising one, will remain the most profound challenge for large middle powers like India. Navigating these geopolitical fault-lines requires adept and agile diplomacy, the ability to articulate national interests and security objectives and delivering on them.
India’s pursuit of multi-alignment – built on strong but fluid alliances with America, consistent ties with Russia (particularly in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine), and the developing world – has drawn its fair share of criticism at home and abroad. However, India stands alone as a country which, chameleon-like, is an active member of the Quad (alongside America, Japan, and Australia), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (sponsored by China), BRICS (a joint effort by Brazil, Russia, India, and China), and is still be able to maintain strong, friendly ties with America.
In public interactions, Jaishankar has explained that India is not anti-West, but “non-West,” a country which does not see a contradiction in cooperating with the G7 on many issues of common interest while pursuing other seemingly contradictory alliances and partnerships. India’s multi-aligned approach is being put to its biggest test with the return of President Trump, who has threatened to rain down tariffs on the country, and in managing the country’s still fragile relationship with China.
India’s economy has also sputtered over the previous year, diminishing the country’s bragging rights as being the fastest growing economy within the G20. While Jaishankar’s diplomacy is impressive, recognised no less by the late Henry Kissinger, much more work needs to be done by his government at home to reinforce the country’s global standing. This includes accelerating economic reforms, fixing governance, level the playing field for business, and building a truly inclusive India. Until that happens, India’s chief diplomat is the star lead violinist in a mostly under-performing orchestra.
