//php if(!empty($last_str)){if(!preg_match('~[0-9]+~', $first_str)){echo $title;}else{echo $last_str; }}else{echo $title;}?>268: India ‘Looking East’ via Military Diplomacy
Jayant Singh, Research Assistant, ISAS
29 October 2014
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”.