PRIME Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has made a great statement during his virtual address to the Association of Asian Nations (ASEAN) that India relates to Asian countries not as part of a common and extended geography but as members of a shared cultural past, present and future. Though he did not attend the summit personally, the Prime Minister made it more than clear that India stood firmly with every ASEAN initiative to keep the bond not just alive but thrive. With 2026 as a year of ASEAN-India Maritime Cooperation coming into Asian and global focus, India would always be a proactive partner in the larger idea of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADAR) and healthy growth of blue economy -- as per the ASEAN ideation.

 

No matter what a few skeptics -- at home or abroad -- might have to say, Mr. Narendra Modi, without doubt, made a great diplomatic assertion of his own and India’s role in world affairs. The most important and interesting part of Indian diplomacy is that the world believes that what India says and does stands on a genuine foundation of honesty and clarity of thought and action. At the ASEAN summit, Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar basked in that glory as India’s top diplomat. A lot of speculation preceded the ASEAN summit about Mr. Modi’s presence there and about a possible meeting on the its sidelines between Mr. Modi and United States President Mr. Donald Trump (who appeared eager to have a personal word with the Indian Prime Minister).

 

Those speculations apart, Mr. Narendra Modi chose to celebrate Diwali festival as usual with Armed Forces -- this time onboard INS Vikrant -- and sent a strong team led by Dr. Jaishankar to Malaysia (and a strong cultural message to the world). Despite that, Mr. Modi’s virtual participation made a major point. Mr. Modi’s statement that Asian countries are members of a common cultural family across the vast geography is not just a poetic assertion, but also a historical reality. Ages ago, when India was the most advanced nation in the world (with its share in the global GDP hovering around 25%), Indian kings and their armies spread their influence across the Asian continent, especially bordering the oceans and the seas. Indian trade also flourished in the Asian continent. In the political and economic processes over centuries, Indian culture too travelled across the seas to different lands in which came up temples and other institutions that have now become integral parts of those different countries. In other words, we feel tempted to describe the Asian region as a cultural expression and extension of ‘India Beyond Its Own Borders’.

 

The Prime Minister assured that India beyond borders that the familial ties, the umbilical cord, has been intact despite differing political and economic situations. This mindset has been India’s sovereign promise to Asia and the world for decades. It might not have found a political expression in actual terms for some time after India’s Independence, all right. But with Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s Act East Policy, the cultural bond with Asian geographies grew stronger and sentimentally closer. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, India led by Mr. Modi was quick to offer its ‘non-reciprocal assistance’ to every Asian neighbour as well as others in different and distant geographies around the globe. That established India’s unmitigated goodwill across political boundaries -- which the Prime Minister underscored in his opening remarks during ASEAN-India summit, stating how India always stood by its ASEAN friends in every crisis. It needs to be stated that India’s engagement with ASEAN got superbly highlighted by the Prime Minister’s speech that reiterated India’s sovereign promise to the continent and the world about its apolitical goodwill.