New Delhi: The year 2023 has been a busy one for External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. This year, he made 33 trips around the world, primarily to Southeast Asia and Oceania, as part of India’s foreign policy push in recent years.
This is what V. Muraleedharan, the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, told Lok Sabha in a written response to a question raised in the House.
In their questions, Congress MPs Subburaman Thirunavukkarasar and Ravneet Bittu had sought details of visits undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and the outcome of these visits. The had also sought details of foreign dignitaries’ visits to India.
According to the minister’s response, 2023 saw Jaishankar travel to every continent except Antarctica. The answer also shows he travelled to four countries between November and December 2022, taking his total tally to 37 foreign trips since 11 November, 2022.
These trips come as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to make India the ‘Voice of the Global South’ as well as to promote India’s 2023 G20 presidency.
Since November 2022, the regions that Jaishankar covered the most are Southeast Asia and Oceania with 10 trips to countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Australia.
He visited Australia and Indonesia twice in 2023. While he visited Quad partner Australia between 17-19 February and once again between 22-24 May, his Indonesia trip was between 12-15 July and then again on 7 September.
Jaishankar also visited India’s immediate neighbours Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Maldives between December 2022 and December 2023. As reported by ThePrint earlier, he visited Sri Lanka twice as part of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made seven foreign trips between November 2022 and December 2023. During the same period, India hosted 17 high-level visits by foreign dignitaries, including the G20 Leaders’ summit in New Delhi in September.
In the last six years, India has opened new diplomatic missions in 21 countries and has grown its dialogues through tri-laterals and quadrilaterals such as the Colombo Security Conclave (India, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka), Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (US, Japan, Australia, India), and the I2U2 (Israel, India, UAE, and the US).
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African & Latin American push
Of the 21 new missions opened in the last six years, 16 are in Africa, a report by ThePrint found earlier. The new missions include the ones in Burkina Faso, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Cabo Verde, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Togo.
As a part of India’s African push, Jaishankar visited six African countries in 2023 — Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania. His visit to Mozambique between 13-15 April 2023 was the first ever by an Indian external affairs minister to that country.
The month of April was a busy one for Jaishankar as he travelled to Africa and South America almost continuously from 10-29 April. After travelling to Uganda (10-12 April), Ethiopia (13 April) and Mozambique (13-15 April), he travelled to South America starting with Guyana on 20 April. After Guyana, he visited Panama, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic — all countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region.
Of all countries, Jaishankar visited the US the most since November 2022, including an 8-day trip in September this year during the UN General Assembly session.
While Jaishankar spent New Year’s Eve in Cyprus and New Year’s Day in Austria, his next visit to the old continent (Europe) was only five months later in May, when he travelled to Sweden and Belgium. After that, he next visited Europe towards the end of the year in October and November with visits to Portugal, Italy, and the UK.
PM Modi’s trips
Prime Minister Modi visited 12 countries between November 2022 and December 2023, including six countries in West Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania regions.
He visited Indonesia twice (G20 2022 and ASEAN 2023 summits) and also Japan for the G7 summit in May. He also visited Papua New Guinea, where he co-chaired the third Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation on 22 May before travelling to Australia.
His trip to Australia originally included the Quad leaders summit, which was cancelled as US President Joe Biden returned to Washington, D.C. to solve the summer US debt ceiling crisis.
Prime Minister Modi also travelled to France, Egypt, UAE, Greece, and South Africa in 2023, apart from his first official state visit to the US in June.
Foreign dignitaries
In 2023, 17 delegations of foreign dignitaries visited India including 23 heads of state or government during the G20 leaders’ summit between 9-10 September 2023. In January, the Presidents of Suriname and Guyana visited India, followed by the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who was chief guest for the Republic Day parade on 26 January.
Sisi’s visit was followed by three back-to-back delegations from the European Union, including one led by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, another led by Frederik, the Crown Prince of Denmark, and a third led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
India hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida twice each — independent visits in March 2023 as well as the G20 summit in September.
In addition, India also hosted the King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck twice – in April and November — as India’s Himalayan partner inches closer to resolving their border issues with China.
Apart from the King of Bhutan, Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal or Prachanda as he is known, and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe are two other dignitaries from neighbouring countries that travelled to India this past year.
The other foreign leaders that visited India included the Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Kenyan President William Ruto, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and the King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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