What Are The Foreign Policy Priorities For Modi 2.0?
PM Modi is heading to Maldives and Sri Lanka and S Jaishankar to Bhutan, underscoring India’s Neighbourhood First foreign policy.
The Narendra Modi government has started its second term with the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. The prime minister will visit Maldives and Sri Lanka, while the newly appointed external affairs minister S Jaishankar took off to Bhutan. What will the Modi-Jaishankar India foreign policy look like?
Jaishankar brings the perspective of the corporate and the business world to the table, said Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic editor at The Hindu. “South Asia is definitely a priority for him (Jaishankar) but we have to see if that’s not just lip service.” Another idea that Jaishankar put forward is that the foreign ministry has to work much closer with the economic ministries, she said.
The U.S.-China trade war has escalated and President Donald Trump has withdrawn India’s Generalized System of Preferences designed to promote duty-free trade.
There will be a lot of negotiations but India should not waste any political capital on the GSP withdrawal issue, said Neelam Deo, former foreign ambassador and co-founder and director at think-tank Gateway House. “These are 40-year-old concessions. If the Indian economy can’t deal with the absence of that, we cannot have claims to positions on the high tables.”
Haider disagrees, saying that India is almost pandering to the U.S. “India can do without GSP benefits but why should India do it? Why should Indian exporters see their orders being sent to another country, what is India being penalised for? And why can’t these things be discussed before these ultimatums are given?”
For Modi’s first swearing-in ceremony in 2014, India had invited SAARC leaders. This time, the ceremony saw presence of leaders from BIMSTEC, a bloc of seven nations dependent on the Bay of Bengal for trade.
The government has hit the ground running on foreign policy objectives by making it clear that no SAARC members were invited because of terror issues with Pakistan, Deo said.
Haider pointed out that traditionally the first visits are always to the neighbourhood. But the problem is—does the neighbourhood continue to get the same kind of attention, she said.
Watch the full discussion here: