New Delhi: India has among the fastest growing diplomatic networks in the world with 11 new posts since 2021 mostly in Africa, according to the 2024 Global Diplomacy Index released by Australia-based Lowy Institute.
With a total of 194 diplomatic posts, India has jumped to the 11th rank in the Index — ahead of Canada, Spain and South Korea.
The report released Sunday shows that over 75 percent of new diplomatic posts opened by India since 2021 were in Africa. In 2014, ThePrint reported that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) created a list of countries that no Indian minister had visited in years, mainly in “untapped regions” like Africa and Latin America.
“It was a list of roughly 50 countries, mainly in Africa. That’s why you’ve seen many high-level visits (the PM, EAM or MoS) to untapped regions like Africa and Latin America in recent years,” a government source told ThePrint.
This comes at a time when India has been trying to position itself as the voice of the Global South, as espoused throughout its G20 President last year.
Indian missions in Lithuania and Cabo Verde are in the process of being set up, though ambassadors have been appointed. The country is also preparing to open missions in the strategically located island country of Timor-Leste, positioned between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Last month, during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta in Ahmedabad to discuss how to take the ties ahead.
During the Raisina Dialogue last week, the foreign minister of Albania, a key country in the Western Balkans, announced that his country is planning to open an embassy in New Delhi, while India will set up one in Tirana.
That said, India continues to be outside the top 10 countries in Lowy’s Index. The report says this is because it has “historically underinvested in the size of its diplomatic network relative to its demographic and economic weight.”
New Delhi, however, has emerged as a major diplomatic capital in the world. It is home to 64 embassies and consulates — higher than the number of missions in Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Canberra and Singapore, says the report.
Kabul, on the other hand, saw 19 mission closures since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
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Rise of middle powers
China has retained the number one spot for the largest diplomatic network in the world with 274 missions. The US is not far behind with 271 missions. However, the rise of middle powers, such as India and Turkey, reflects changes in the global order.
Turkey now has the third largest diplomatic network in the world with 252 posts, surpassing traditional diplomatic heavyweights, such as Japan and France. Of the 11 new posts it added since 2021, most were in the Middle East and Africa.
However, a large chunk of its missions, approximately 40 percent, remain in Europe.
“Turkey’s network remains highly Eurocentric with 102 (40 percent) of its total overseas posts in that region alone, shadowing the sizeable ethnic Turkish diaspora in the Eurozone,” says the report.
About 5.5 million Turkish people live in Western European countries, according to Turkish government data.
Surge of new missions in Pacific island countries
Spurred by growing geopolitical competition in the Indo-Pacific, there has been a sharp increase in new diplomatic missions in Pacific Island countries over the last couple of years.
“The uptick in diplomatic attention also reflects rising competition for influence in the smaller, strategically positioned Pacific Islands states, which saw the opening of 15 new posts, including from Australia, China, Europe, and the United States,” states the Lowy report.
The US has taken steps to either open new missions or to reopen dormant ones. For example, it has re-opened its embassy in the Solomon Islands and opened a new one in Tonga. It is also keen to open missions in Vanuatu and Kiribati.
However, China still has an edge over the US with nine missions across Pacific island countries compared to Washington’s eight.
India, meanwhile, operated only two posts among Pacific island nations, excluding Australia and New Zealand.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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