India has faced some questions from the west on what is being described by some as soft-peddling on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Regardless of this, New Delhi has maintained a “cautious stance” on expressing its views on the matter but it continues to call for the cessation of violence and the path of diplomacy to end the conflict. Against this backdrop, in an article jointly authored by India’s academics Jagannath Panda and Eerishika Pankaj, the experts argued that India is staying true to its own policies of non-alignment and national interest needs. Panda is the head of ISDP’s (Institute for Security & Development Policy) Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs. Meanwhile, Eerishika Pankaj is the Director of the Organization for Research on China & Asia (ORCA). Writing for the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), they contend that India’s silent diplomacy on Ukraine allows room to maintain its strategic autonomy and such an overture allows Russia some respite from international backlash. “Both China and India have remained prominent voices absent from condemning Russian actions, and the move has gone to show the clear importance Moscow holds for both Delhi and Beijing. While the critical value of Russia as an arm and energy supplier to India has been largely credited as the reason behind Delhi’s aversion to breaking its silence on Ukraine, another key factor shaping India’s policy is Moscow’s role as a balancer especially vis-a-vis China,” they write. According to Panda and Pankaj, Russia’s partnership with India and the ideological friendship it shares with China have long been balanced delicately by the Kremlin to ensure that the three Eurasian powers stick together against the West. “Even in Doklam and Galwan, Russian neutrality and focus on continuing with the RIC (Russia-India-China) framework as a means of dialogue post-conflict highlight this outlook,” they wrote. India’s ties with Russia stand on strategic, diplomatic and defense cooperation, ranging across energy, arms and defense with international support. “Despite US sanctions like Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), India’s decision to go ahead with its procurement of S-400 air defence systems yet again proves that India’s relations with Russia stand on their own merit,” they said.   Source: ANI

We enter 2021, hoping to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us. While each society has dealt with it uniquely, global diplomacy will nevertheless focus on common concerns and shared lessons. Much of that revolves around the nature of globalization. Our generation has been conditioned to think of that largely in economic terms. The general sense is one of trade, finance, services, communication, technology and mobility. This expresses the interdependence and interpenetration of our era. What COVID, however, brought out was the deeper indivisibility of our existence. Real globalization is more about pandemics, climate change and terrorism. They must constitute the core of diplomatic deliberations. As we saw in 2020, overlooking such challenges comes at a huge cost. Despite its many benefits, the world has also seen strong reactions to globalization. Much of that arises from unequal benefits, between and within societies. Regimes and dispensations that are oblivious to such happenings are therefore being challenged. We must ensure that this is not about winners and losers, but about nurturing sustainable communities everywhere. COVID-19 has also redefined our understanding of security. Until now, nations thought largely in military, intelligence, economic, and perhaps, cultural terms. Today, they will not only assign greater weight to health security but increasingly worry about trusted and resilient supply chains. The stresses of the COVID-19 era brought out the fragility of our current situation. Additional engines of growth are needed to de-risk the global economy, as indeed is more transparency and market-viability. Multilateral institutions have not come out well from this experience. Quite apart from controversies surrounding them, there was not even a pretense of a collective response to the most serious global crisis since 1945. This is cause for serious introspection. Reforming multilateralism is essential to creating effective solutions. Fashioning a robust response to the COVID-19 challenge is set to dominate global diplomacy in 2021. In its own way, India has set an example. That it has done by defying prophets of doom and creating the health wherewithal to minimize its fatality rate and maximize its recovery rate. An international comparison of these numbers tells its own story. Not just that, India also stepped forward as the pharmacy of the world, supplying medicines to more than 150 countries, many as grants. As our nation embarks on a mass vaccination effort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance that it would help make vaccines accessible and affordable to the world is already being implemented. The first consignments of Made in India vaccines have reached not only our neighbors like Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri Lanka but partners far beyond like Brazil and Morocco. Other key global challenges today deserve similar attention. As a central participant in reaching the Paris agreement, India has stood firm with regard to combating climate change. Its renewable energy targets have multiplied, its forest cover has grown, its bio-diversity has expanded and its focus on water utilization has increased. Practices honed at home are now applied to its development partnerships in Africa and elsewhere. By example and energy, Indian diplomacy is leading the way, including through the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure initiatives. The challenge of countering terrorism and radicalization is also a formidable one. As a society, long subjected to cross-border terrorist attacks, India has been active in enhancing global awareness and encouraging coordinated action. It will be a major focus in India's diplomacy as a non-permanent member of the Security Council and in forums like FATF and G20. Among the takeaways from the COVID-19 experience has been the power of the digital domain. Whether it was contact tracing or the provision of financial and food support, India's digital focus after 2014 has yielded impressive results. The "work from anywhere" practice was as strongly enhanced by COVID-19 as the "study from home" one. All these will help expand the toolkit of India's development programs abroad and assist the recovery of many partners. 2020 also saw the largest repatriation exercise in history–the return home of more than 4 million Indians. This alone brings out the importance of mobility in contemporary times. As smart manufacturing and the knowledge economy take deeper root, the need for trusted talent will surely grow. Facilitating its movement through diplomacy is in the global interest. A return to normalcy in 2021 will mean safer travel, better health, economic revival and digitally driven services. They will be expressed in new conversations and fresh understandings. The world after COVID-19 will be more multi-polar, pluralistic and rebalanced. And India, with its experiences, will help make a difference. *Dr. S. Jaishankar is the Foreign Minister of India.

New Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said his office would focus on economic diplomacy for realizing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visions to upgrade Bangladesh to higher middle income country by 2021 and achieve sustainable development goals by 2030. “My main focus will be enhancing economic diplomacy,” he said on Monday as the Awami League government was installed to power for the third consecutive term with the swearing in of the new council of ministers under Sheikh Hasina’s premiership. Momen, an economist by background, said he would engage the foreign office to do its part effectively to implement and expedite Sheikh Hasina’s visions particularly her target to elevate the country’s status as a higher middle income by 2021. He said development goals like the Delta Plan 2100 would be the priority issues of his ministry as well as part of the government aspiration to make the country Sonar Bangla (golden Bangladesh) in real terms as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Momen said intense relations with neighbors like India and China would remain as a major policy while he would try to cultivate more effective ties with all major foreign nations like the US, UK and France keeping intact Bangladesh’s integrity. “In no time in the recent history our relations with India was so good, we will maintain it and rather take it to further,” said Momen, who previously served as Bangladesh’s permanent envoy to the United Nations with concurrent accreditation to South American republics of Chile and Peru. Simultaneously, he said, Dhaka would try to reap benefits of its ties with China as it offered a huge amount as credit for Bangladesh’s development. Momen identified the Rohingya crisis as a major challenge while he preferred to call it an “economic issue” but feared it could affect the regional stability unless addressed through a consorted effort all. “The issue needs to be solved as immediate as possible, otherwise it would affect stability of the entire region,” he said. Momen, younger brother of outgoing Finance Minister AMA Muhith, was elected as a lawmaker from Sylhet-1 constituency in the December 30 national election. Momen received PhD in economics and as well as MBA degree in business administration from the Northeastern University in Boston. He has also MPA in public administration, public policy and international economics from the Harvard University (Cambridge), LLB, MA in development economics and BA (Honors) from Dhaka University. Momen taught economics and business administration at Merrimack College, Salem State College, Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He served as President of the UNICEF Executive Board at the international level in 2010. He was Vice President and Acting President of the 67th United Nations General Assembly. Momen was President of the United Nations High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation in 2014. Source: BSS AH