ISAS Insights

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first term in office, has taken his proactive style of governance to the foreign office. Recall the Prime Minister’s inauguration ceremony when Modi caught many political commentators off-guard by inviting leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for his swearing-in. Since then, officials at South Block – seat of India’s Ministry of External Affairs – have been kept busy with a series of diplomatic commitments, both in India’s backyard and further abroad. As the new government’s foreign policy agenda crystallises, it appears that military diplomacy has found new footing in the foreign office. New Delhi is keen to strengthen defence relations with “Friendly Foreign Countries”.