New Delhi: October will be a busy month for Indian diplomacy, with two international summits on the calendar likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and multiple incoming high-level delegations, including those of Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu and German Chancellor Olaff Scholz.
The month, which has already seen the first visit ever by a Jamaican prime minister to India, saw Andrew Holness hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 October, where four agreements were signed to strengthen ties between the two countries, especially in the areas of digital financial services and cooperation in sports.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu is expected to travel to India Sunday for a four-day bilateral visit from 6 October to 10 October—his first such visit to India since assuming the presidency on 17 November, 2023. Muizzu had previously visited India for Modi’s oath-taking ceremony on 9 June at the start of the Indian prime minister’s third term.
Ties between India and Maldives, which were strained in the early months of Muizzu’s tenure, have since normalised. The Maldivian president, who was elected on an ‘India Out’ campaign, chose to visit Türkiye, UAE and China during his first months at the job. This was a break with tradition as the first visit for a new president of Maldives has been India in the past. This was followed by three deputy ministers making disparaging remarks against Modi, which further harmed relations.
Moreover, Malé pushed for removal of unarmed Indian troops from the country, who were there to help maintain three aviation platforms. Eventually an agreement was reached, where the uniformed personnel were replaced with a technical team. Since then, India has rolled over at least two loans worth $50 million each to the island country and offered budgetary support to its government.
Apart from Muizzu’s expected visit, there are two major summits scheduled for this month. The 19th East Asia Summit (EAS) and the 21st ASEAN-India Summit, which will be held between 6 October and 11 October in Laos. Prime Minister Modi has made it a point in the past to lead the Indian delegation to these two summits, held under the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) framework.
Since 2014, Modi has attended every EAS and ASEAN-India Summit except for two—in 2020 and 2022. In 2020, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar had attended the summit on behalf of the Indian government, which was hosted by Vietnam virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar had represented India at the 17th EAS Summit in Cambodia, accompanied by Jaishankar. The East Asia Summit and the ASEAN-India Summit have been an important pillar for New Delhi’s Act East foreign policy.
In 2023, Modi had led the Indian delegation to Jakarta, Indonesia for the EAS from 6 September to 7 September, despite the summit being held a mere 48 hours before the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi under India’s presidency—a fact which was appreciated at the time by the outgoing Indonesian president Joko Widodo.
The East Asia Summit is a leader-led forum consisting of 18 countries—the 10 ASEAN countries and eight dialogue partners. The dialogue partners are India, Russia, Republic of Korea, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US. It has been held annually since 2005.
India and ASEAN have held an annual summit every year since 2002.
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BRICS & visit by German chancellor
From 22 October to 24 October, Russia is holding the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan. This is another forum, where PM Modi has led India’s delegation every year since becoming the head of government in 2014.
Modi also represented India in the three virtual summits hosted between 2020 and 2022 due to the pandemic. In 2016 and 2021, India was the host country for the BRICS summit. In 2016, the summit was held in Goa, while in 2021, it was held virtually.
Modi is likely to attend the summit. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin proposed a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit during a meeting with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in September 2024. This would be the second bilateral meeting between the two leaders this year after Modi travelled to Russia in July for a bilateral summit.
The other high-level delegation expected to visit India in the last week of October is that of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz, along with a number of senior German ministers, will be here for the 7th India-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations. This would be Scholz’s third visit to India after his state visit in February 2023 and G20 summit in September 2023.
In the last round of Intergovernmental Consultations held in Berlin in 2022, Scholz had promised EUR 10 billion in development aid to India. The two countries are expected to deepen their cooperation in this visit, including their defence partnership.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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