Following India’s general elections in April-May, a new government led by the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi was formed in early June. The first days India’s “new” government have been marked by a number of notable foreign policy developments.

Narendra Modi sworn in as prime minister

On June 9, Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance coalition began his third consecutive term as India’s Prime Minister. He is only the second leader (after Jawaharlal Nehru) to have won a third term since India’s independence. Moreover, for the first time, Narendra Modi’s government has been joined by representatives from the other parties in the NDA coalition. Nevertheless, all the key positions have been retained by members of the previous one-party government. Specifically, the Foreign Office will continue to be headed by Subramanyam Jaishankar.

Notable among the various heads of state from neighboring countries who were invited to Narendra Modi’s inauguration ceremony was Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzou. With the latter’s ascension to the presidency late last year, the Maldives, which occupies an extremely important strategic position in the Indian Ocean, has seen a dramatic change in its foreign policy course, moving from a pro-India to a pro-China position. This inevitably led to a cooling in relations between the Maldives and India.

It would therefore appear that Mohammed Muizzou’s decision to attend Narendra Modi’s inauguration ceremony was intended to signal a wish to somehow compensate for the above shift in the Maldives’ foreign policy. But while Mohammed Muizzou was in New Delhi, one of the members of the Maldivian Parliament launched an attack on India. Something strange is going on in the state of the Maldives.

India at the BRICS Ministerial Forum

The first notable act of the new government abroad was the participation of India’s Foreign Secretary for Economic Relations in the BRICS Ministerial Forum held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, on June 10-11. The absence of India’s Foreign Minister from the event was due to the fact that the new government was still being formed. Clearly, it was necessary for the prospective........

© New Eastern Outlook