ISAS Briefs

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a full plate at the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings in New York in September 2019. Modi has covered a series of issues like climate change, trade, global health, infrastructure cooperation, counterterrorism and conflict while meeting world leaders, accepting awards, launching various causes and trying to sew up a bilateral trade agreement with the US. The UNGA meetings demonstrate that India’s multilateral agenda is broad but strategic and reflective of policy priorities and interests - not the other way around. More than ever, India’s multilateral instincts, interests and intentions are a pathway to fortify and advance domestic policy goals; simply put, Delhi’s multilateral focus is, and for three decades has been, strategic and rational, unburdened by lofty ideas concerning what India represents or should represent globally.