India’s diplomatic journey in the last five years has been spectacular, to say the least. It was one of

assertion of the primacy of India’s signature on the international essay of  multi-lateral cooperation on issues of common interest. This diplomatic journey also showed how India positioned itself carefully and leveraged its

military capabilities smartly to make itself an unavoidable Asian power with a global outreach.

THE vibrancy of the Raisina Dialogue was very correctly captured by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in just a few short and crisp words. Usually, a host would welcome any such initiative and talk about its utility. But as the Prime Minister spoke those few crisp words, he really highlighted the importance of the exercise as a platform which many nations could utilise to share their exclusive or inclusive concerns.

 

 

And even as the world was still listening to what was happening at the Raisina Dialogue, India also chose to invite Pakistan and its Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan for the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that New Delhi is slated to host in a few days. This offering of a small diplomatic window of possibility to a confirmed enemy also became a tstatement by itself since it suggested an upper hand to India in international issues.

At the Raisina Dialogue, what dominated the discourse was the issue of terror -- and naturally the role States like Pakistan have been playing in its sponsorship and usage. The mode and method of expression of common or collective concerns by countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Russia made it clear that all were waiting for some platform from which they could make their statements. The Raisina Dialogue offered all of them a limited-interest platform with an unlimited implication. And that is the reason why Mr. Narendra Modi chose to describe the Raisina Dialogue as a vibrant forum.

 

Of course, for India, the exercise acted only as a fresh starting point of an onward diplomatic journey on which the biggest endeavour and anxiety concerns building bonds with other nations, something other nations present at Raisina, too, shared.

 

In the past five years, what Mr. Narendra Modi has achieved in his diplomatic endeavours around the world actually got endorsed during the three-day Raisina Dialogue -- certain leadership position so potent as to offer an umbrella to other nations to come together and get engaged in multi-dimensional communication to resolution of common causes of collective or individual conflicts.

 

The biggest point the Dialogue could make successfully was in the domain of the common concern about some nations using their superior military and economic mights to weigh heavy upon others. The best voicing of this point of view came from Iran whose representative talked of a peace initiative that Tehran did not want to be read or viewed as its weakness. Another point made and heard well was the concern made by the Afghanistani representative about how Kabul felt suffocated and constrained due to attitudinal issues which Pakistan raised. Afghanistan got the opportunity to state openly how critically it viewed its bond with India and how important it was for Kabul to have Pakistan on its side.

 

It was only natural, therefore, for Mr. Narendra Modi to assert that the Raisina Dialogue was a forum that the nation must use to share common concerns and share common causes. The Prime Minister’s manner of appreciation offered indications good enough to expect the exercise to grow in stature with passage of time.

If Raisina Dialogue is one forum that India will always look forward to, the other forum which it will love to utilise to establish an upper hand for its ideology of international peace is Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, whose meet it is slated to host soon. And then there is a third forum -- the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) -- in which India enjoys a great respect as one of its promoters, with Pakistan naturally missing from consideration.

 

The Raisina Dialogue, however, gave India a head-start in the global diplomatic arena at the start of New Year. It is not known if Pakistan accepts the Indian invitation for the ensuing SCO meet. If it does, then India establishes itself as a nation willing to hear others. If Islamabad declines, that would give New Delhi, again, an upper hand in diplomacy on the world stage. The Raisina Dialogue offered India the opportunity to start taking right steps in the right direction -- as an Asian power with an ever-expanding global footprint in diplomacy.

 

India’s diplomatic journey in the last five years has been spectacular, to say the least. It was one of assertion of the primacy of India’s signature on the international essay of multi-lateral cooperation on issues of common interest. This diplomatic journey also showed how India positioned itself carefully and leveraged military and economic capabilities smartly to make itself an unavoidable Asian power with a global outreach.

 

It is at this point that we must recall what Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar said, in effect, at the Raisina Dialogue -- India’s is not a disruptive way. This approach to diplomacy and external affairs was highlighted well at the Raisina Dialogue as nations expressed their respective standpoints under the umbrella New Delhi opened for them. When a seasoned career-diplomat-turned-politician like Dr. Jaishankar asserts that India does not believe in disruptive diplomacy and wants a constructive approach to building international bonds, there could have been no better forum than the Raisina Dialogue.

 

The exercise, thus, has paved the way for notching up more achievements of diplomatic nature not just for New Delhi but also for other nations. It may not be preposterous to expect the Raisina Dialogue to become a permanent forum in the years to come. The world does need one more such outlet to voice and view common concerns and anxieties.