India and the World
18-INDIA AND THE WORLD |
Introduction
THE primary objective of India’s engagement with the world is to ensure a peaceful, stable global environment and create the most propitious climate for India’s economic growth and development. The rising profile of the country in global affairs and its emergence as a fast-growing economy in an otherwise difficult global environment presents a moment of opportunity that can be utilized to diversify India’s strategic and economic options. In this context, India’s external engagements have sought to simultaneously advance and deepen relations with each bilateral or multilateral partner, in the specific areas where such engagement brings maximum benefit to Indian interests.
- The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also known as the Foreign Ministry, is the government agency responsible for the conduct of foreign relations of the country.
- During the year, the Ministry of External Affairs continued its pragmatic and outcome-oriented engagements, to enhance India’s security, uphold its territorial integrity, while, promoting and facilitating India’s economic transformation.
- Bilaterally, Prime Minister’s informal summits with Russia and China, the 2+2 engagement with the US, high-level visits to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as also to the Central Asian Republics, is illustrative of a new phase in the expansion of India’s diplomatic engagements.
- India’s broadening horizons on maritime issues were postulated through the presentation of a six-point Indo-Pacific policy, reinforcing our concept of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).
- India played a pioneering role on climate change and global warming issues with the holding of the First General Assembly of the International Solar Alliance in 2018.
- India’s emergence as a global forum for deliberations on international relations and globalization was demonstrated through the holding of international conferences covering the three pillars of geopolitics, geoeconomics, and geotechnology.
- India’s policy of ‘Neighbourhood First’ continued to be accorded the highest priority, with a focus on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented, regional frameworks for stability and prosperity.
- Projects in rail, road, ports, inland waterways, shipping and energy and fuel transmission are being implemented with Indian partners in the neighbourhood.
- In Nepal, the Arun III hydro-electric project and the Nepal India Ramayana Circuit were launched during Prime Minister’s state visit.
- India has offered three lines of credit to Bangladesh totalling US$ 8 billion.
- In solidarity with Bangladesh’s efforts to provide succour to those displaced from North Rakhine State in Myanmar, India launched Operation Insaniyat and supplied three tranches of humanitarian aid.
- India is assisting Myanmar to create an environment conducive to the return of displaced persons through the Rakhine State Development Programme.
- The two countries have signed a Land Boundary Crossing Agreement whereby designated boundary points were opened up to the normal movement of visa holding travellers, including from third countries.
- The newly elected leaders of the Maldives and Bhutan made India the destination of their overseas visits.
- India’s ties with Sri Lanka remained positive and were further strengthened during the year, marked by close contacts at the highest political level, increasing trade and investment, and implementation of people-oriented developmental projects.
- The year witnessed several key developments in India Afghanistan ties, including, the delivery of wheat and pulses to Afghanistan from India, expansion of air freight corridor between the two countries, and commencement of work for several India-assisted socio-economic developmental projects in Afghanistan identified under the New Development Partnership announced in 2017.
- The “informal summit” mechanisms with China at Wuhan and Russia at Sochi were important milestones.
- India and the US held their first 2+2 dialogue between foreign and defence ministers, consolidating the global strategic partnership.
- Prime Minister’s visit to Tokyo in 2018 for the 13 India-Japan Annual Summit further built upon the unprecedented transformation in the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan over the last nearly five years, covering a wide range of areas of cooperation and highlighting the shared values and interests of the two countries.
- The Act East policy has received a boost with the renewed global emphasis on the Indo-Pacific region.
- India and ASEAN have stepped up cooperation to boost maritime cooperation and physical, digital and cultural connectivity.
- Carrying forward India’s ‘Think West’ policy, coordinating energy and security interests, External Affairs Minister met representatives of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE for bilateral engagements during the year.
- The India Ports Global Limited company assumed responsibilities for operations in Iran’s Chabahar port, which will provide sea land connectivity to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
- A waiver was obtained from the US which enabled the continued imports of Iranian oil and separate mechanisms were evolved for payments and marine insurance.
- At the multilateral level, India continued to contribute to shaping the global agenda on an array of cross-cutting issues such as climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and black money.
- The G20 Summit also saw intensive engagement, with the first-ever Japan-America-India (JAI) trilateral meeting as also the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting.
- India announced that it would host the G20 Summit in 2022, the 75th year of India’s Independence.
- The General Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was inaugurated in Delhi, along with the 2 IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting and 2nd Global Re-invest Meet.
- The ISA is the first UN-affiliated inter-governmental organization to be headquartered in India.
- India extended, Lines of Credit (LoCs) of about US$ 1.03 billion to various countries and nine projects aggregating to US$ 101.13 million have been completed, and more than ten thousand civilian training slots were offered to 161 partner countries under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme.
- Given its popularity and in-line with the changing needs and technological advancements around the world, new platforms like e-ITEC and ITEC-Onsite have been included in the bouquet of ITEC offerings.
- Medicines were made available, inter alia, to Mozambique, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Swaziland, and Kenya.
- India launched Operation ‘Samudra Maitri’ for earthquake and tsunami assistance to Indonesia.
- The growing impact of India’s civilizational values on international cooperation, underpinned by the enduring conceptual framework of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, was movingly manifested when artistes from 124 countries came together to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and rendered Gandhiji’s favourite bhajan, Vaishnava Jana, To for a global audience on the International Day of Non-Violence.
- The Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas celebrations at Varanasi in 2019 further strengthened the bonds between the Diaspora and their homeland.
- The emphasis of the government on service delivery and citizen-centric governance is reflected through steps to implement four Mission Mode Projects of e-Kranti (fourth pillar of Digital India Programme) namely e-Office, eProcurement, Immigration, Visa, Foreigner’s Registration, and Tracking System (IVFRT) and Passport Seva Projects (PSP).
- A number of e-governance and automation projects have been also undertaken by the MEA in consonance with the aims and objectives of Digital India such as Foreign Service Institute Alumni Portal, eAudit Portal, Revamped Know India Programme and Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Portals, Diplomatic Identity Card Registration and Issuance System, etc.
Neighbourhood |
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Afghanistan |
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Pakistan |
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Bangladesh |
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Myanmar |
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Bhutan |
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Nepal |
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China |
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Sri Lanka |
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Maldives |
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Mauritius |
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Seychelles |
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Indian Ocean Rim Association |
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South East Asia and Asia Pacific |
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Association of Southeast Asian Nations |
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EAST ASIA |
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Democratic People’s Republic of Korea |
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Japan |
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Republic of Korea |
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Mongolia |
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Eurasia |
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Russia |
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Central Asia |
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Ukraine and Belarus |
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South Caucasus |
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Shanghai Cooperation Organisation |
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The Gulf and West Asia |
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Gulf |
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Iran |
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West Asia and North Africa |
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AFRICA |
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East & South Africa |
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West Africa |
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Europe and European Union |
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Central Europe |
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Western Europe |
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European Union |
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The Americas |
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North America |
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Latin America |
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United Nations and International Organisations
- In 2018, India continued its active engagements with international organizations including the United Nations (UN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Commonwealth.
- PM led the Indian delegation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in London.
- External Affairs Minister led the Indian delegation at the 18th NAM Mid-term Ministerial conference held in Baku.
- EAM also led the Indian delegation during the High-Level Segment of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Session.
India and Peacekeeping:
- India continued to push for greater priority to be given within the UN system for the global counter-terrorism effort.
- It was repeatedly highlighted that the international community needed to strengthen its legal framework that supported international counter-terrorism cooperation by reaching agreement on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), and ensure greater transparency and effectiveness of existing UN counter-terrorism structures.
- India continued to be the largest cumulative contributor of UN Peacekeeping troops, having provided more than 200,000 troops and police personnel since the 1950s.
- As on 31 October 2018, India is the fourth largest Troop Contributing Country (TCC) with 6,608 personnel deployed in 9 peacekeeping missions.
- India was elected to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) for the term 2019-2021, securing the highest number of votes (188 out of 193) among all the 18 candidate countries.
- India was re-elected to the Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations (CNGO) for the term 2019-2022.
- India was re-elected as a member of the International Telecommunications Union Council (ITU) for 2019-2022 term.
States Division
- MEA has a States Division, established in 2014, to foster closer links between Indian missions and posts abroad and states/union territories.
- It facilitates the signing of various Sister City/Sister States and other MoUs between state/union territory governments and foreign entities.
- In order to enhance external outreach of states/union territories, it represented MEA at various events in the states, including global investor meets and significant cultural events of states that generate significant international exposure for the states of India.
Counter Terrorism
- In the wake of various terrorism-related incidents that occurred in different parts of the world in 2017, the issue of terrorism found prominent mention in various high-level bilateral and multilateral meetings.
- During all such interactions, India strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reiterated its commitment to combating the menace at a global level.
Global Cyber Issues
- Increasing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the social and economic development of nations has made cyber issues one of the significant subjects of diplomatic discussions around the world.
- In keeping with its profile, the MEA upscaled its Global Cyber Issues cell to create the new Cyber Diplomacy (CD) Division which has been entrusted with the responsibility of projection and safeguarding of Indian interests on the subject in international fora.
Consular, Passport and Visa Services
- During 2018, the Ministry processed more than 1.21 crore passport and passport related applications in India compared to 1.17 crore during 2017 showing a growth of 4 per cent.
- The 184 Indian Missions/ Posts abroad issued approximately 11,63,026 passports.
- Thus, the Government of India, in total, issued 1,24,17,733 passports in 2018.
- As on December 2018, over 7.96 crore citizens held valid passports.
- India today is placed third behind China and the United States in terms of global passport issuance.
- The Ministry, in association with the Department of Posts, has taken an innovative initiative to open Passport Seva Kendras at the Head Post Offices (HPO)/ Post Offices in the country to be known as ‘Post Office Passport Seva Kendra’ (POPSK).
- The mPassport Seva Mobile App with additional facilities to apply pay and schedule appointments for passport services were launched in 2018.
- Citizens do not require access to a computer and printer to apply for passport services.
- From June 2018, an applicant can apply for a passport from anywhere in India.
- One lakh applications were filed under this scheme during 2018.
Overseas Indian Affairs
- The Overseas Indian Affairs Divisions are driven by the vision of development through coalitions in a world without borders.
- They seek to connect the Indian diaspora to India, and also to strengthen the institutional frameworks which provide for the support and welfare of overseas Indians.
- It provides information, partnership, and facilitation for all matters related to the Indian diaspora.
- As part of the government’s commitment to strengthen engagement with the diaspora, among the major
- initiatives hosted during 2018-2019 were Videsh Sampark outreach programme, Know India Programme, Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Conferences, a Scholarship programme for diaspora children, and Awareness Campaign on Safe and Legal Migration.
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