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International Visits & Summits --> International Visits & Summits --> International Visits & Summits

International Visits & Summits

Recent summits.

November 30, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the COP28 Summit in Dubai, at the invitation of President of UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. During his visit PM Modi launched Green Credit initiative. He also held bilateral talks with several world leaders on the sidelines of the Summit.

September 08, 2023

G20 Summit is being held at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi, India, from 9-10 September 2023. Heads of States and leaders of member nations as well as special invitees are joining the Summit in Delhi. PM Modi will be chairing the Summit. He will also hold several bilateral meetings with world leaders on the sidelines of the Summit.

September 06, 2023

PM Modi visited Jakarta, Indonesia from 6-7 September 2023 and took part in the ASEAN-India Summit as well as the East Asia Summit. During the Summit, PM Modi held extensive discussions with other leaders on key issues of global concern.

BRICS Summit 2023

August 22, 2023.

PM Modi visited South Africa from 22 to 25 August, where he took part in the BRICS Summit, in Johannesburg. He also took part in the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue events. During the visit, PM also held bilateral meetings with several world leaders.

May 19, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Hiroshima, Japan to attend the G7 Summit under the Japanese Presidency at the invitation of H.E. Mr. Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan. During the visit, the PM held bilateral meetings with some of the leaders attending the Hiroshima G7 Summit.

September 15, 2022

PM Modi visited Samarkand at the invitation of President of Uzbekistan H.E. Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev to attend the SCO Summit. PM Modi emphasised the constructive role the grouping can play in the post-COVID era particularly in furthering economic recovery and strengthening supply chains. The PM also held bilateral meetings with the leaders of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Russia and Iran in the sidelines of the Summit.

India-Nordic Summit

May 01, 2022.

During Denmark visit, PM Modi took part in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit along with Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway. The Summit focused on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region.

November 02, 2021

PM Modi visited Glasgow to attend the 26th Conference of Parties (COP-26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He participated in the high-level segment of COP-26. PM Modi also launched the IRIS initiative.

Eastern Economic Forum

September 03, 2021.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a video-address during the plenary session of the 6th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) held on 3 September 2021 in Vladivostok. PM stressed on the importance of greater economic and commercial engagement between the two sides in line with the ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’.

BIMSTEC Summit 2018

August 30, 2018.

PM Narendra Modi took part in the 4th BIMSTEC Summit at Kathmandu on 30th and 31st August. The Summit focused on the theme ‘Towards a Peaceful, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region.’ On the sidelines of the Summit, the PM held productive talks with several world leaders. PM Modi met PM KP Sharma Oli and reviewed India-Nepal bilateral relations. PM Modi and PM Oli also inaugurated the Nepal-Bharat Maitri Dharamshala at the Pashupatinath Temple Complex.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

April 19, 2018.

On 19th and 20th April, PM Modi took part in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Discussions pertaining to several global and regional issues were held. The PM also met several Heads of States on the sidelines of the Meeting.

World Economic Forum

January 22, 2018.

PM Narendra Modi delivered the historic inaugural address at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He pitched for India as an investment destination, emphasising on efforts to improve the ease of doing business. Highlighting India’s growing influence in the global economy, PM Modi recalled that in 1997, when an Indian Prime Minister last attended the WEF, the country’s GDP was a bit over $400 billion. “Two decades later, the country’s GDP has multiplied over six times,” he said.

Nuclear Security Summit 2016

March 31, 2016.

PM Narendra Modi visited Washington DC on 31st March. He participated in the 4th Nuclear Security Summit. PM held discussions on the crucial issue of threat to nuclear security caused by nuclear terrorism. On the sidelines of the summit, PM Narendra Modi met several world leaders to carry forward the agenda of bilateral cooperation with those nations. Shri Modi also interacted with the scientists associated with LIGO project.

EU-India summit

PM Narendra Modi visited Brussels on March 30. Shri Modi met and held talks with Belgian PM Charles Michel. He held the 13th India-EU Summit with the E.U. leadership. PM Modi and Belgian PM Michel also remotely activated the India-Belgium ARIES (Aryabhatta Research Institute for Observational Sciences) Telescope. Shri Modi met Members of European Parliament (MEPs), Indologists, Belgian CEOs and Board Members of the Association of Diamond Traders. Shri Modi also interacted with the Indian community. The visit was aimed at expanding trade, investment and high technology partnership with Belgium.

SAARC Summit

November 25, 2015.

PM Narendra Modi attended the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal in November 2014. PM Modi pressed for better connectivity and enhanced cooperation among the SAARC nations. He held various bilateral meetings with the leaders of SAARC region. PM Narendra Modi was also complimented for his initiative of the SAARC satellite.

November 26, 2015

India hosted the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit from October 26-October 29, 2015. It was one of the largest events as leaders and representatives from 54 nations of Africa gathered together under one roof. PM Narendra Modi welcomed the leaders, held bilateral meetings and deliberated upon strengthening India’s relationship with African countries in the times ahead.

September 24, 2015

PM Narendra Modi attended G4 Summit hosted by India on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York during his visit to the USA. It brought together heads of four countries under one roof. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, PM Shinzo Abe of Japan, President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff and PM Modi together pressed for urgent reforms in the UN Security Council.

FIPIC Summit

August 20, 2015.

In August 2015, India hosted the second FIPIC Summit. PM Narendra Modi held bilateral meetings with various leaders of the Pacific Nations. The leaders of Pacific Nations expressed strong support for the UN reforms and India’s candidature for the permanent membership of a reformed UN Security Council. PM Modi extended India’s full support to Pacific Island countries for disaster mitigation.

Modi in Bhutan

March 22, 2024.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bhutan from 22-23 March 2024. The visit was aimed at further strengthening ties with the friendly neighbouring country. During the visit, PM Modi held talks with HM the King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, PM Tshering Tobgay as well as met HM the fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck. PM Modi was also …

February 14, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Qatar. He received a ceremonial welcome in Doha. During his visit, he held bilateral talks with HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and discussed various important issues. He also had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, to discuss matters of mutual …

February 13, 2024

PM Modi visited Abu Dhabi, UAE where he took part in numerous programmes. The PM held bilateral meeting with UAE President HH Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, took part in the Ahlan Modi event and inaugurated the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi. The PM also addressed the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

August 25, 2023

On 25th August PM Modi visited Athens, Greece. He met President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who conferred upon PM Modi ‘The Grand Cross of the Order of Honour’. PM Modi also held talks with PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis as well as interacted with the Indian community there.

July 13, 2023

PM Modi embarked on a successful visit to France. PM Modi attended the Bastille Day Celebrations as the 'Guest of Honour' and also addressed the CEO Business Forum. He also received the prestigious ‘Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour’ by President Macron.

June 24, 2023

Prime Minister Modi visited Cairo, Egypt at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. He held talks with President Sisi and senior members of the Egyptian Government as well as interact with the vibrant Indian diaspora in Egypt. The PM also visited the Pyramids in Egypt.

June 20, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the USA on a State Visit at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. PM Modi attended programmes in New York City and Washington DC which include Yoga Day celebrations at the UN HQ, talks with President Biden, address to the Joint Session of the US Congress and more.

May 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited to Sydney, Australia at the invitation of Prime Minister Albanese. He interacted with Australian CEOs and business leaders, and addressed the Indian community in Sydney at a special event.

Papua New Guinea

May 21, 2023.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This was his first visit, as also the first ever visit by any Indian Prime Minister, to Papua New Guinea. He chaired the FIPIC III Summit jointly with H.E. Mr. James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. PM Modi will also held bilateral interactions with PM Marape.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Tokyo to attend the State Funeral of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. The PM also held talks with PM Fumio Kishida during the visit.

May 16, 2022

PM Modi visited Lumbini in Nepal on 16 May 2022. PM Modi offered prayers at the Mayadevi Temple as well as took part in Shilanyas ceremony of India International Centre for Buddhist Culture & Heritage. He also addressed a programme on Buddha Jayanti.

May 03, 2022

PM Modi had a fruitful visit to Copenhagen, Denmark from May 3-4, 2022 at the invitation of PM Frederiksen. He participated in the India-Denmark Business Roundtable as well as interacted with the Indian community in Denmark. PM Modi also took part in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit along with Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden …

May 02, 2022

PM Modi had a productive visit to Berlin, Germany on May 2, 2022. He took part in the 6th India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. PM Modi also interacted with Indian community during the visit.

March 26, 2021

At the invitation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bangladesh on March 26 & 27, 2021. During the visit, Prime Minister attended the National Day programme of Bangladesh on March 26, as the guest of honour. The visit of the Prime Minister to Bangladesh was the first visit to a foreign country since the …

Saudi Arabia

October 29, 2019.

PM Modi visited Saudi Arabia on 29 October 2019. During the visit, PM held extensive discussions with His Majesty the King of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman. The PM also addressed the Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyadh.

August 24, 2019

PM Modi visited the Kingdom of Bahrain from 24-25, August 2019. This was the first ever Prime Ministerial visit from India to the Kingdom. PM Modi held talks with Prime Minister His Royal Highness Prince Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and other leaders. He also interacted with the Indian diaspora.

June 09, 2019

At the invitation of President Maithripala Sirisena, PM Narendra Modi visited Colombo, Sri Lanka on 9th June 2019. The PM visited the St. Anthony's Shrine and paid homage to those who lost their lives during the cowardly terror attack on Easter. The PM held wide ranging talks with the President, PM and other leaders in Sri Lanka.

Modi in Maldives

June 08, 2019.

PM Narendra Modi visited Maldives on 08 June 2019 at the invitation of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. The PM’s Maldives visit was aimed at further strengthening India’s ties with the maritime neighbour, in line with ‘Neighbourhood-First Policy’ and the vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region. PM Modi was also conferred the …

Modi in South Korea

February 20, 2019.

PM Narendra Modi visited the Republic of Korea at the invitation of President Moon Jae-in. During this visit, PM Modi held crucial talks with President Moon, he met with business leaders and members of the Indian community.

Modi In South Africa

July 25, 2018.

From 25-27 July, PM Modi attended the BRICS Summit in South Africa. On the margins of the summit, the Prime Minister also hold bilateral meeting with the South African President and other leaders.

Modi in Uganda

July 24, 2018.

PM Modi visited Uganda during 24-25 July. The PM held productive talks with President Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and also delivered a Keynote address at the Parliament of Uganda. Shri Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to address the Ugandan Parliament.

Modi in Rwanda

July 23, 2018.

PM Modi visited Republic of Rwanda during 23-24 July. This was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Rwanda. He held bilateral meeting with President of Rwanda, held talks with business community. PM visited the Genocide Memorial and participated in an event on "Girinka” (one cow per family), a national social protection scheme of …

Modi in Singapore

November 23, 2018.

PM Modi’s Singapore visit was aimed at enhancing India-Singapore partnership in multiple sectors. During his visit, the Prime Minister met Singapore President Halimah Yacob, held talks with PM Lee Hsien Loong and interacted with the business community. Shri Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to deliver the keynote address at Shangri-…

Modi in Indonesia

May 29, 2018.

During his first bilateral visit to Indonesia, PM Narendra Modi held extensive talks with President Joko Widodo and deliberated on ways to further enhance cooperation between both the countries in host of sectors. The Prime Minister also interacted with Indian community in Indonesia during his visit.

Modi in Russia

May 21, 2018.

PM Modi and President Putin of Russia held productive discussions and they reviewed the complete range of India-Russia relations as well as other global subjects during their first ever informal summit in the Black Sea coastal city of Sochi. The leaders also visited the Sirius Education Centre and interacted with session students.

Modi in China

April 26, 2018.

PM Modi visited Wuhan, China on 27-28 April 2018 for an Informal Summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. PM Modi and President Xi exchanged views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. The leaders reviewed the developments in India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.

April 16, 2018

PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK was aimed at enhancing India-UK partnership in the areas of healthcare, innovation, digitization, electric mobility, clean energy, and cyber security. The PM held wide ranging talks with PM Theresa May. He met HM The Queen, interacted with leading CEOs of the two nations, launched an Ayurveda Centre of …

Modi in Sweden

PM Modi, during his bilateral visit to Sweden, held productive talks with Swedish PM Stefan Lofven. PM Modi interacted with leading business leaders. The PM also met His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden. India and Sweden jointly organized the India-Nordic Summit in Stockholm on 17th April with the Prime Ministers of Finland, Norway,…

February 11, 2018

PM Modi visited Oman on 11-12 February. He met HM the Sultan Qaboos of Oman, Deputy PM for the Council of Ministers HH Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said and Deputy PM for International Relations and Cooperation Affairs HH Sayyid Asa'ad bin Tariq Al Said. The PM also interacted with Indian community at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat, …

February 09, 2018

PM Modi paid a historic visit to Palestine on February 10th after transiting though Jordan where he met HM King Abdullah II. In Palestine’s Ramallah, PM Modi met President Mahmoud Abbas. India and Palestine agreed to deepen ties in key sectors such as technology, training and infrastructure development. During his visit, the PM was conferred ‘…

September 05, 2017

PM Narendra Modi visited Myanmar from September 5-7, 2017. This was his first bilateral visit to Myanmar. PM Modi met H.E. U Htin Kyaw, President of Myanmar. Prime Minister held wide-ranging discussions with State Councillor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on matters of regional cooperation. Giving a fillip to cultural ties between both countries, the PM …

July 04, 2017

PM Modi paid a historic visit to Israel from 4-6 July upon invitation of PM Netanyahu. It was the first ever visit by any Indian Prime Minister to Israel. PM Modi held wide-ranging talks with President Rivlin and PM Netanyahu. He interacted with Israeli CEOs and discussed scope of expanding businesses in India. He also visited Yad Vashem …

Netherlands

June 28, 2017.

PM Modi visited the Netherlands on 27 June 2017. He met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, called on King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. The PM, in a meeting with CEOs of major Dutch companies, encouraged and invited them to explore opportunities in India. PM also interacted with Indian diaspora in the Hague.

June 24, 2017

PM Narendra Modi visited Portugal on 24 June 2017. PM Modi held talks with PM Antonio Costa and discussed ways to enhance the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science & technology, space collaboration and people to people ties. Both the leaders also launched a unique Startup portal. PM also interacted with …

May 30, 2017

PM Modi visited Spain on 30th May on an official visit. He held a meeting with President Mariano Rajoy and discussed bilateral and other issues of mutual interest. As part of the programme, Prime Minister also met King Felipe VI of Spain. He joined Round-Table interaction with leading Spanish business leaders and invited them to explore …

September 02, 2016

PM Narendra Modi visited Vietnam to further cement the close bond between both countries. PM Modi held talks with Prime Minister of Vietnam Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the President of Vietnam, Mr. Tran Dai Quang. The PM also met several other leaders of Vietnam. Shri Modi paid homage to Ho Chi Minh, laid a wreath at the Monument of National …

July 04, 2016

PM Narendra Modi visited Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya from July 7-11. PM Modi held deliberations with President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, South African President Jacob Zuma, President John Magufuli of Tanzania and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya. PM Modi’s four-nation tour strengthened India’s ties with the African mainland …

June 09, 2016

Shri Narendra Modi paid a historic visit to Mexico making it the first Prime Ministerial visit in three decades. Shri Modi held talks with President of Mexico, Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto and held wide-ranging talks to enhance bilateral relations between both the countries.

Switzerland

June 06, 2016.

PM Modi had a bilateral meeting with the Swiss President Johann Schneider Ammann where Switzerland supported India’s bid to NSG. He also attended a meeting with the business leaders to enhance industry and trade relations between India and Switzerland. PM invited Swiss industrialists and business leaders to explore opportunities that India …

Afghanistan

June 04, 2016.

Prime Minister Modi visited Afghanistan on June 4th. Shri Modi jointly inaugurated the Afghan- India Friendship Dam with President Ashraf Ghani. PM also shared his views on the progress India was making and said that the world was seeing an India full of opportunities. PM was awarded with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, highest civilian honour of …

May 21, 2016

Recent Visits

Modi In Bhutan

October 28, 2019

South Korea

South Africa

May 30, 2018

April 18, 2018

June 27, 2017

June 03, 2016

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Iran on May 21 and 22 at the invitation of President Rouhani. Shri Modi met Hon’ble Supreme Leader of Iran, President Rouhani and several other leaders. PM Modi's visit was aimed at enhancing connectivity, trade, investments, energy partnership, culture and people to people ties. The historic Chahbahar Agreement was also inked during the Prime Minister's visit. Shri Narendra Modi also visited Gurudwara in Tehran and inaugurated an International Conference on ‘retrospect and prospect’ of India and Iran relations.

November 21, 2015

PM Modi visited Malaysia from November 21to 23. He attended the ASEAN-India Summit and the 10th East Asia Summit. PM Modi met PM Najib Razak of Malaysia and discussed bilateral ties with him. Shri Modi and Mr. Razak jointly inaugurated the Torana Gate. The PM also visited Ramakrishna Mission and inaugurated a statue of Swami Vivekananda. Shri Modi interacted with Corporate Malaysia and invited them to invest in India. PM Modi also interacted with the Malay-Indian community during his visit. The PM also held bilateral meetings with Premier Li Keqiang of China and PM Shinzo Abe of Japan on the sidelines of the summits.

Central Asia

July 06, 2015.

On 6th July 2015 the PM Modi embarked on a tour to Central Asia. He visited Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The visit was historic and special because it was a significant effort to expand India’s cooperation with the Central Asian Nations on an unprecedented scale.

Social Buzz

May 17, 2015

PM Modi's visit to Mongolia was historic, path breaking & one that will take India's ties with Mongolia to spectacular heights. One-day visit by the Indian PM to the land of spiritual neighbour opened up broad avenues of partnership and cooperation between both the Nations.

April 15, 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Canada from April 15th - April 16th. This was first standalone bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister in over four decades. Shri Modi held wide-range meetings with the Canadian counterpart Mr. Stephen Harper. The Prime Minister met top business leaders and industrialists in Ottawa and Toronto to deepen ties between both the nations. PM Shri Modi also addressed the Indian Diaspora in Toronto and paid a visit to Gurudwara Khalsa Diwan and Lakshmi Nayan Temple in Vancouver.

#3NationTour

March 11, 2015.

PM Modi visited Seychelles, Mauritius & Sri Lanka from 11-14 March 2015. The visit was successful in strengthening India’s ties with these friendly Nations. In Seychelles, PM met President Michel and held multiple deliberations with him. In Mauritius, PM addressed the Mauritius National Assembly and joined the ceremony to mark the commissioning of the Barracuda. In Sri Lanka the PM addressed the Parliament, visited the Mahabodhi Society and travel to Jaffna.

November 19, 2014

The visit was the first bilateral visit by a Prime Minister of India in 33 years. Shri Modi addressed the Parliament of Fiji. PM Modi also attended a 'Forum for India-Pacific Island cooperation' where he met leaders from Pacific islands nations.

December 21, 2015

The Prime Minister travelled to Brazil to attend the BRICS Summit in Fortaleza. The PM held extensive meetings with the other BRICS leaders and the leaders discussed a wide range of global issues. During the Summit it was decided to set up a BRICS bank and the first head of the Bank will be from India. 3 MoUs were signed between Brazil and India, after President Rousseff and PM Modi met. The Prime Minister also met leaders of various South American nations during the visit.

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India’s Modi visits Greece, the first visit to the country by an Indian prime minister in 40 years

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures after a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, shakes hands with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis after a meeting, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, right, speaks after a meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi prior to a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, sits during a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks to the press after a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, talks with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis prior to a meeting, at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years.

In this photo provided by the Greek President’s office, Greece’s President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, center right, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years. (Theodore Manolopoulos/Presidency of Hellenic Republic via AP)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi enters Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

In this photo provided by the Greek President’s office, Greece’s President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, right, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi join a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years. (Theodore Manolopoulos/Presidency of Hellenic Republic via AP)

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, welcomes his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, welcomes, his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Modi’s visit to Athens is especially significant for Greek foreign policy as it is the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Greece in 40 years. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The prime ministers of India and Greece pledged to boost their countries’ trade, business and defense ties Friday during a visit to Athens by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s visit is the first to Greece by an Indian prime minister in 40 years since Indira Gandhi visited the country in September 1983.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the two countries enjoyed relations stretching back to antiquity.

“Based on these strong foundations of our long-term relations, we have the great joy of upgrading our cooperation now to a strategic relationship,” Mitsotakis said in a joint televised statement distributed by Greece’s state broadcaster.

Reporters were not permitted to attend, and no questions were taken.

Modi said the two decided to reinforce bilateral relations in the defense and security sectors, as well as in infrastructure, agriculture, education and technology.

“In the sector of defense and security, we agreed to reinforce our military ties and our defense industries,” Modi said, according to a Greek translation of his comments.

The two countries will also aim to double bilateral trade by 2030, Modi said. Commercial trade between India and Greece stood at 1.32 billion euros in 2022, Mitsotakis said in an article for the Times of India released by his office Friday.

India’s opposition Congress party leaders from left, Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Rahul Gandhi, display copies of party’s election manifesto during a press conference in New Delhi, India, Friday, April 5, 2024. India's 6-week-long general election starts on April 19 and results will be announced on June 4. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Modi said the two countries signed an agreement Friday regarding agricultural production that will also allow for cooperation in research, animal rearing and animal products.

India and Greece also want to facilitate skilled migration, “so we decided that an agreement will be signed soon on mobility and migration,” Modi said.

The two also discussed “the great importance” of establishing direct flights between Greece and India, Mitsotakis said, noting “great opportunities” in the sectors of tourism as well as economic cooperation in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors.

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List of countries visited by Narendra Modi for the first time ever as Indian Prime Minister

Prime minister narendra modi has made a deep impact on the world stage..

As PM embarks on his visit to France, here is a look at countries where Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister ever to visit.

Mongolia: Narendra Modi was the first-ever Indian Prime Minister to visit Mongolia in May 2015. During his visit, various agreements were signed between both nations.

Palestine: PM Modi visited Palestine in February 2018, the first for any Indian Prime Minister. During his visit, he signed six agreements worth around $50 million that includes setting up of a $30 million super speciality hospital in Beit Sahur. He was also conferred the highest civilian award of Palestine, the Grand Collar of the State of Palestine.

Rwanda: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Rwanda visit in July 2018 was the first visit to the East African country by any Indian Prime Minister. He held a bilateral meeting with the President of Rwanda and also met the business community. The PM visited the Genocide Memorial and participated in an event on "Girinka” (one cow per family), a national social protection scheme of Rwanda personally initiated by President Paul Kagame.

Israel: In the year 2017, Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. During the visit, seven MoUs were signed.

Bahrain: PM Modi visited the Kingdom of Bahrain in August 2019. This was the first-ever Prime Ministerial visit from India to the Kingdom. PM Modi held talks with Prime Minister His Royal Highness Prince Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and other leaders. He also interacted with the Indian diaspora.

Papua New Guinea: Prime Minister Modi was the Indian leader to visit Papua New Guinea. He visited the world's third-largest island country in May 2023.

List of nations Indian PM visited after a long time

Fiji: In 2014 November, PM Modi visited Fiji. He became the first Indian head of government to visit Fiji after 33 years, after Indira Gandhi's visit in 1981. During his maiden visit, the PM attended a 'Forum for India-Pacific Island Cooperation' along with leaders from all 14 Pacific island nations. He was conferred with the highest honour of Fiji. PM Modi was conferred with the "The Companion of the Order of Fiji" in recognition of his global leadership.

Seychelles: In March 2015, PM Modi visited Seychelles, thus becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to travel to Seychelles in 33 years, after Indira Gandhi. Modi's visit to Seychelles was part of his "Indian Ocean outreach" programme.

Mozambique: PM Narendra Modi visited Mozambique in 2016. This was the first prime ministerial visit from India to Mozambique after the visit of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1982.

Sweden: PM Modi visited Sweden in April 2018. This is the first visit of an Indian Prime Minister to Sweden in 30 years. PM Modi, during his bilateral visit to Sweden, held productive talks with Swedish PM Stefan Lofven. PM Modi interacted with leading business leaders. The PM also met His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden.

UAE: In August 2015, PM Modi visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was the first Indian Prime Minister in 34 years to visit the UAE. Indira Gandhi was the last Indian Prime Minister to have made a trip to the country in 1981.

Ireland: PM Modi made a stopover in Ireland in 2015, marking the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the country in around 60 years. Jawaharlal Nehru was the last Indian Prime Minister to visit Ireland in 1956.

Turkmenistan: Modi was the second Indian PM to visit Turkmenistan in 2015 after PV Narasimha Rao. PM Modi visited Turkmenistan and other central Asian countries following his visit to Russia for the BRICS summit.

Jordan: PM Modi visited Jordan in 2018, making it the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 30 years. Rajiv Gandhi visited the nation in 1988. PM Modi held a meeting with Prime Minister Hani Al-Mulki and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

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Indian diplomacy in 2023: How many countries PM Modi visited this year?

Pm modi prominent international visits in 2023 included that to united states, france, south africa and others..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on foreign visits to 11 countries in 2023. Explore the details of all the international engagements of the prime minister here.

Representative Image: PM Modi foreign visits.

PM Modi’s visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea & Australia (May 19 - May 25 )

PM Modi attended the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Japan's Hiroshima, marking India's consecutive invitations to the prestigious event.

Following the G7 Summit, PM Modi embarked on tour to Papua New Guinea, becoming the first visit by an Indian prime minister to this Indo-Pacific nation. During his visit to Papua New Guinea, PM Modi co-chaired the 3rd Summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC III Summit).

Subsequently, PM Modi, responding to an invitation from Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese , travelled to Sydney. In Sydney, PM Modi interacted with the local Indian community at a spec event, alongside Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Moreover, during this community event, it was announced that the Harris Park area in Parramatta would be designated as ‘Little India’.

Also read: Why PM Kishida invited PM Modi to G7 Summit in Hiroshima? Japan’s envoy explains

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden at White House Arrival Ceremony, in Washington, D.C.(ANI/PIB)

PM Modi’s visit to USA & Egypt (Jun 20 - Jun 25)

In June PM Modi undertook state visit to United States. Invited by US president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, visit began in New York, where the prime minister led celebrations for the International Day of Yoga at the United Nations headquarters on June 21.

Following this, Modi travelled to Washington, receiving a ceremonial welcome at the White House on June 22. A high-level dialogue with Biden took place, and a state dinner hosted by Bidens honoured PM Modi that evening.

PM Modi’s visit to France & UAE (Jul 13 - Jul 15 )

PM Modi visited France as the chief guest at Bastille Day military parade, a signal honour last extended to a foreign leader in 2017 when former US president Donald Trump visited. A 269-member Indian tri-services contingent participated in the parade, accompanied by three French-origin Rafale combat jets from the Indian Air Force.

Formal talks between Macron and Modi took place, followed by a state banquet and a private dinner hosted by the French president. Modi also met with French counterpart Élisabeth Borne and the presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly. Interactions with the Indian diaspora, CEOs of Indian and French companies, and prominent French personalities were part of the schedule.

Also read: What gifts did PM Modi present to France's leaders? Sitar, Silk fabric, Marble table, and more | Full List

From France, Modi traveled to Abu Dhabi in the UAE on July 15 for talks with president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, addressing global cooperation issues, especially in the context of the UAE's COP28 presidency and India's G20 presidency.

Also read- ‘Every Indian sees you as a true friend’: PM Modi to UAE president in Abu Dhabi

(FILES) (From L to R) President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose for a BRICS family photo during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on August 23, 2023.(AFP)

PM Modi’s visit to South Africa & Greece (Aug 22 - Aug 26 )

Next on the agenda was PM Modi's visit to South Africa where he attended BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.

Also read: PM Modi backs Brics expansion at summit, says should be done with consensus

In Greece, PM Modi's official visit marked the first by an Indian premier in 40 years, focusing on upgrading the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Also read: Greece confers Grand Cross of the Order of Honour on PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo upon his arrival to attend the ASEAN Summit, in Jakarta. With India and ASEAN observing the 30th anniversary of their partnership in 2022, the Indian side has focused on increasing connectivity in the physical, digital and economic domains.(PTI)

PM Modi’s visit to Indonesia (Sep 6 - Sep 7 )

Moving on to September, PM Modi attended the 18th East Asia Summit and 20th ASEAN-Indian Summit at the invitation of Indonesian president Joko Widodo, just days before the G20 Summit in New Delhi.

Also read: In speeches at 2 summits in Jakarta, PM Modi delivers a clear message to China

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, President of Mozambique Filipe Jacinto Nyusi and European Council President Charles Michel at a high-level event on Green Credits Programme during the COP28, in UAE, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. (PTI)

PM Modi’s visit to Dubai (Nov 30 - Dec 1 )

In the later part of the year, PM Narendra Modi arrived in Dubai to take part in the World Climate Action Summit, a significant event held during the United Nations' Conference of the Parties on climate, known as COP28. The summit featured delegates from nearly 200 nations.

Also read: Giorgia Meloni takes selfie with PM Modi, Italian PM calls it a ‘Melodi’

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Details of Foreign/Domestic Visits

Details of Foreign/Domestic Visits of Prime Minister since 26.05.2014

Foreign Visits:

Expenditure: The expenses on foreign visits of PM are met from the budget of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) .

Details of Visits: Foreign visits undertaken by PM since 26.05.2014 along with duration and expenses incurred on chartered flights is given below:-

Domestic Visits:

Expenditure: The expenses on domestic visits of PM are met out of the budget of Ministry of Defence.

Details of Visits: List of domestic visits of PM from 26.05.2014 along with duration is available in the website of PMO.

(Page last updated on 20.02.2024)

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Explained: The significance of PM Narendra Modi’s Europe tour

Prime minister narendra modi will be visiting germany, denmark and france from may 2. what will be on the table in the context of the ukraine crisis, and economic and defence ties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is travelling to Germany, Denmark and France from May 2 to 4. His first foreign trip this year comes at a time when a war in the heart of Europe has upended seven decades of global order.

Germany is one of India’s most important partners in Europe, with deep bilateral relations, and also because of its key role in the European Union. India was among the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with the Federal Republic of Germany after WWII.

India and Germany have a ‘Strategic Partnership’ since May 2000, and it has been strengthened with the launch of the Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) in 2011 at the level of heads of government. India is among a select group of countries with which Germany has such a dialogue mechanism. During Modi’s visit, the 6th IGC will take place, postponed from last year due to the pandemic.

Germany has a new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who assumed office last December. Scholz, a former finance minister, visited India in 2012 when he was the Mayor of Hamburg. Scholz was the first foreign leader with whom Modi had a phone conversation in 2022.

Germany has made key strategic choices in the Russia- Ukraine war. It has promised to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, and decided to increase defence spending — a significant move, given its post-WWII posture. With India too dependent on Russia for defence supplies, it will be important for New Delhi and Berlin to exchange notes on strategic choices — and moving away from Russia for their respective needs.

Germany holds the G-7 Presidency, and with India taking a different view from Europe’s by not condemning Russia directly, it will be significant to see if India gets invited to the G-7 outreach summit in June.

India and Germany have a shared interest in upholding democratic values, a rules-based international order, and reform of multilateral institutions. These issues are expected to figure in the discussions, especially in the context of China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

Bilateral relations were elevated to the level of a “Green Strategic Partnership” during the Virtual Summit held in September 2020 between Modi and Danish PM Mette Frederiksen. Frederiksen was in India on a state visit from October 9 to 11, 2021, the first visit by a Head of Government following the pandemic.

INDIA-NORDIC SUMMIT: The first India-Nordic Summit took place in April 2018 to explore new areas of cooperation. This format is special; the only other country with which the Nordic countries — Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland — have this kind of engagement is with the US. While economic growth, climate change and global security were identified as key areas of cooperation, the summit is taking place at a time when two Nordic countries are looking at joining NATO , amid a sense of insecurity in Europe.

“Nordic countries are pioneers in innovation, clean energy, green technologies, education, health-care, human rights, rule of law — this presents enormous opportunities for India to expand its own strengths by collaborating with these countries…,” Ankita Dutta, a research fellow at the India Council of World Affairs wrote in a paper. For Nordic countries, Dutta wrote, “it makes sense to step-up their engagement, as India today represents a fast growing economy with annual GDP growth of 7-7.5% over the last few years. India presents an ideal opportunity to these countries because of its large market. Many new flagship schemes have been launched by India — like Make in India, Smart Cities Mission, Start-up India, Clean Ganga etc — in which Nordic countries can take active part and provide their expertise.”

The visit to France has been planned after President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected in a tough election. India and France have traditionally had close relations. In 1998, the two entered into a Strategic Partnership, with defence & security cooperation, space cooperation and civil nuclear cooperation being its pillars. India and France also have a robust economic partnership, and are increasingly engaged in new areas of cooperation.

France was among the few western countries to not condemn India after the 1998 Pokhran tests. It has continued to support India’s claim for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. France’s support was vital in India’s accession to the Missile Technology Control Regime, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group. France continues to support India’s bid for accession to the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Following the Pulwama attack in February 2019, France nationally listed the Pakistan-based ‘global terrorist’ Hafiz Saeed, which was followed up with his listing at the UN. France has also supported India’s requests to block attempts by Pakistan to enlist Indian citizens under the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee.

The current visit will give the two leaders an opportunity to exchange notes on the Ukraine crisis, China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, and defence and security cooperation including the delivery of Rafale aircraft.

Modi and Macron are some of the few world leaders who have maintained open communication channels with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy .

The conversation with France will also be important since it is holding the Presidency of the European Union this year.

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India & Europe

To sum it up, Modi’s visit signifies the importance attached to India’s ties with Europe. For the past few years, Europeans have always felt that — as a whole — the Modi government gives more thrust to other strategic partners like the US, Japan and even Australia and the UAE, than Europe.

Over the last few weeks, the intensity of engagement has increased in the wake of the war in Ukraine, with foreign ministers from UK, Poland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway among others and the President of the European Commission visiting India.

Although India in 1962 had been one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community — the precursor of the European Union — the relationship focused initially on trade and economic cooperation. A Cooperation Agreement signed in 1994 broad-based the relationship to include ministerial meetings and a political dialogue.

These ties have expanded to include political and security issues, climate change and clean energy, information and communications technology, space and nuclear, health, agriculture and food security, and education and culture.

Modi’s visit to Europe is likely to set the stage for the India-EU summit and a boost in Free Trade Agreement negotiations, which have been ongoing for a decade and a half now.

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Rohit Sharma and wife Ritika Sajdeh had a fun time on The Great Indian Kapil Show.

Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer were guests on The Great Indian Kapil Show, where they discussed their on-field dynamics and experiences. During the chat, Kapil directed questions to Rohit's wife, Ritika Sajdeh, who also serves as his manager, about her experiences managing the cricketer. The episode also witnessed Rohit opening up about the emotional toll of India's loss in the 2023 World Cup.

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Modi State Visit Modi Promotes India to Congress After Meeting With Biden

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized his country’s development and played up what he described as commonalities with the U.S. Earlier, he ducked a question about his government’s treatment of minorities.

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Modi Praises ‘Limitless’ Potential of U.S.-India Partnership

In a speech to congress, prime minister narendra modi of india promoted his nation’s development and said the relationship between his country and the united states was important for democracy’s future..

The U.S. is the oldest — and India, the largest — democracy. Our partnership augurs well for the future of democracy. [cheers] Together, we shall give a better future to the world and a better world to the future. Everyone wants to understand India’s development, democracy and diversity. Everyone wants to know what India is doing right and how. We are not only growing bigger, but we are also growing faster. When India grows, the whole world grows. I can go on and go on. But to summarize I would say: The scope of our cooperation is endless, the potential of our synergy is limitless and the chemistry of our relations is effortless.

Peter Baker

Biden welcomes India’s prime minister despite concerns over human rights.

President Biden emphasized common ground with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Thursday during a lavish state visit meant to bolster ties with the world’s most populous nation, while largely skirting points of friction over human rights and Russia’s war in Ukraine, at least in public.

After a pomp-filled, red-carpet arrival ceremony, Mr. Biden and Mr. Modi announced a range of initiatives to advance cooperation in technology, energy and military hardware but revealed no movement toward each other on the areas of disagreement that have strained the relationship in recent months, most especially Ukraine.

In a modest but notable breakthrough, however, Mr. Biden coaxed Mr. Modi into taking questions from reporters at a news conference, apparently the first time he has done so in his nearly decade-long tenure .

Here’s what else to know:

Challenged on his record on human rights and religious freedom, Mr. Modi insisted that democracy was “in India’s DNA” and denied that his government had engaged in discrimination based on race, faith or other such distinctions. Mr. Modi’s government has cracked down on dissent and hounded opponents in a way that has raised fears of an authoritarian turn not seen since India’s slip into dictatorship in the 1970s. In hosting Mr. Modi, Mr. Biden is pushing democracy concerns to the background .

The United States is trying to draw India closer , as the urgency for improved relations has intensified with Russia’s war on Ukraine. India has maintained military and economic relations with Russia, buying up Russian oil at a discount and staying away from backing United Nations resolutions that have condemned Russia’s aggression.

Mr. Modi gave an address to a joint session of Congress where he promoted his country’s development and played up what he described as common themes with the United States.

The two leaders announced initiatives advancing cooperation on telecommunications, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other areas. Mr. Modi agreed to sign the Artemis Accords — principles governing peaceful exploration of the moon, Mars and other celestial bodies — and they will announce a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2024. The United States and India also will open additional consulates in each other’s country.

Tonight, the Bidens will host Mr. Modi for a state dinner on the South Lawn. The vegetarian menu — in accordance with Mr. Modi’s diet — includes an optional fish entree. The first course will be a marinated millet and grilled corn kernel salad with compressed watermelon and avocado sauce, followed by a main course of stuffed portobello mushrooms and creamy saffron-infused risotto.

Suhasini Raj

Indian television heaps praise on Modi during his trip.

“Super King of Diplomacy,” read the ticker placed in bold on top of one news channel. “Long live our friendship,” said another. A third declared, “The Boss in America.”

Mainstream Indian news channels — in Hindi, English and some regional languages — covered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reception in Washington with adulation, praising his diplomatic skills for millions of viewers before a crucial election year for him.

The visuals from Washington played into what Mr. Modi has already set as one of his main campaign themes: tying India’s rise as a major economic power with his rise as a global statesman.

“The scale, the splendor, the warmth,” one headline enthused. Others, such as “Modi’s breakthrough diplomacy” and “Watch history being made,” flooded Indians’ homes Thursday evening as Mr. Modi walked the red carpet to meet President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden.

“Their body language reflected that they were incomplete without one another,” one news anchor said as visuals of the two leaders shaking hands played on the screen.

Mr. Modi has carefully crafted his relationship with traditional news outlets, using a mix of incentives and pressure tactics to get most of them on his side.

When uncomfortable issues arise — a state election loss, an ethnic war resulting in weeks of unrest and bloodshed in a northeastern state, a deadly three-way train crash — they are quick to deflect blame away from Mr. Modi.

And when a major moment like the state visit to Washington comes, they are happy to join in the cheerleading — a factor that, combined with how Mr. Modi’s party has mastered social media to take his messages viral, helps explain Mr. Modi’s talent for shaping politics to his benefit.

The coverage of Mr. Modi’s visit to the United States is a political boon, setting the agenda in his favor before he launches himself full-time into campaign mode for parliamentary elections next year.

While many channels showed the White House dinner menu ad nauseam, calling it “dinner for friendship,” some others waxed eloquent about the importance of the gifts Mr. Modi had carried for the Bidens. One anchor declared of a military deal between the two countries: “The biggest defense deal. The hearts of enemies will burn!”

And when, at his news conference with Mr. Biden, Mr. Modi skirted a question on India’s grim human rights record and suppression of free speech, one Hindi-language news anchor came to his rescue on her show, saying he had “very bravely” faced the question.

Lisa Friedman

The U.S. and India agree to speed deployment of electric buses.

The United States and India have long been at odds over the responsibility of different countries in tackling climate change. But as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up a visit to Washington, he and President Biden cast their nations as partners in the fight.

As Mr. Biden declared climate change an “existential threat to humanity” during a joint news conference on Thursday, Mr. Modi pledged that India was working to become a green energy hub. Both governments also announced plans to help India increase the production of electric vehicles and meet its ambitious goal of installing 500 gigawatts of wind, solar and other renewable energy this decade.

The Biden administration did not announce any direct U.S. funding for India. But senior administration officials said the governments had agreed on a plan they believed would encourage banks to give loans for electric buses, which are seen as a high-risk investment in India.

India aims to deploy 50,000 public electric buses over the next five years. The plan includes establishing three months of delayed payments so that companies can secure loans at lower rates. Biden administration officials said the payment security plan will help underwrite at least 10,000 electric buses.

The United States and India also announced a separate investment plan that officials said will be joined by private companies and others that aims to lower the cost of capital and attract international private finance for large-scale renewable energy projects. The joint announcement billed it a “first of its kind, multibillion dollar” package but no specific dollar figure from the United States or any other country or organization was announced.

Katie Rogers

Guests just started arriving at the White House for the state dinner. Some of the more notable names include Huma Abedin, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton; the designer Reem Acra; Apple’s Tim Cook; Hunter and Ashley Biden; and the president’s brother, James.

Alex Travelli and Mujib Mashal

Reporting from New Delhi

One accomplishment of Modi’s visit? Greater defense cooperation between India and the U.S.

One of the biggest takeaways from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit might be that it has injected new momentum into defense cooperation between the United States and India, a slow and turbulent undertaking in the past.

The two sides announced a deal for coproduction in India of engines for fighter aircraft, a $3 billion purchase of about 30 American Reaper drones by India, and a road map to expand cooperation between the two countries’ defense industries. There were also agreements on intelligence sharing and on space-based, quantum and other strategic technologies.

For the Biden administration, helping India expand its defense manufacturing tracks with its efforts to further isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine . India has long relied on Russia for a majority of its military equipment, and any increase in manufacturing capability at home or diversification of its arms sources would lessen its purchases from Russia.

For India, the United States’ latest efforts to improve defense ties is in line with its attempt to grow its domestic manufacturing and reduce its reliance on foreign partners.

India’s military forces have stuck to most of the same weapons systems that they began using during the Cold War. India was neutral but tended to side more closely with the Soviet Union. Indian officials have said their dependence on Russian weapons over the decades was simply out of necessity: The U.S. long held back on sales of military equipment to India, and that has only started to change over the past two decades. As a result, the Indian armed forces still use equipment of Soviet design and specifications. Parts cannot be swapped out, piecemeal, for American-standard weaponry. In some rare cases, as with India’s use of Lockheed’s C-130 Hercules transport plane, a stand-alone American platform can be soldered onto the existing framework. But for the most part, the systems are not interoperable.

Technical challenges aside, one thing that the defense road map seems to be addressing is the reluctance that has kept the world’s biggest two democracies from seeing eye-to-eye. They have a long history of disagreement, over matters including Pakistan, Iraq and United Nations votes. But tensions with China are bringing them to the same table, especially after Indian and Chinese troops started clashing along their Himalayan border in 2020.

Australia and Japan, the other members of the fledgling security bloc aimed at containing China around the “Indo-Pacific region” (as the Americans renamed it, to include the Indian Ocean, in 2018), have long-established military partnerships and even alliances with the United States.

The “ Roadmap for U.S.-India Defense Industrial Cooperation ,” published earlier this month, illustrates the American goal of making India into something more like a formidable ally — and the Indian goal of beefing up its own capabilities. They find common cause in trying to “cooperatively produce the systems required to meet India’s military modernization objectives.”

But India’s ties with Russia are deep and cannot be undone quickly or with good will alone. Ajai Shukla, a retired colonel with the Indian Army who writes extensively about defense, is skeptical that America will find any durable role to play. He recalls how Alexander Kadakin, a Russian ambassador to India, liked to tell the story about visiting the Indian space centers and feeling more at home there than he did in Russia — because so many of the scientists were speaking Russian.

Karoun Demirjian

Modi waves to crowd in the third floor gallery, who stuck around to cheer him as he slowly makes his way toward the exit. Emphasis on slowly. He stopped for more autographs and pictures on the way out.

He texted from the speech to say that he “appreciated PM Modi’s unequivocal statement that India must be home to all faiths and celebrate all of them.” But he added that “American leaders need to also have the difficult conversations with Indian leaders about protecting minority rights, an open press and open internet.”

At the White House, some 400 guests are going to pass by reporters to attend the dinner. One of the guests is Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, who played a part in inviting Modi to give an address to Congress.

Here’s why Modi and many other Indian politicians stay single.

When President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, take their place on the red carpet at the White House on Thursday to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, there will be an asymmetry of sorts in the picture-perfect setting.

Mr. Modi will go stag.

While a family-centric image is often a political selling point in the United States, in India, many top leaders — the prime minister among them — are proudly unattached, to make a statement that no other commitment can come between them and the nation.

Work-life balance? Not for politicians in the world’s largest democracy, who stay busy attending to the needs of 1.4 billion people and compete with one another in their declarations of sleep deprivation. (Mr. Modi clocks only four hours of slumber a night, his aides say.)

“Every moment of my time, every pore of my body, is only for my countrymen,” the prime minister said in 2019 after winning re-election .

India may seem a strange place for expressions of solitary political devotion. Here, family comes before self and arranged marriages keep families together. Nearly a third of new members of Parliament have had a relative in elected office or a prominent party position, according to one study .

But in a country tired of official corruption, with lawmakers enriching themselves and their families and ensuring political futures for their children, many voters have come to believe that single politicians are less likely to steal.

“The very strong perception,” said Ajoy Bose, a journalist and author, “is that they have no personal interest. That they belong to the people.”

Modi is sticking around in the well of the chamber to shake hands and sign autographs after the speech. In the gaggle of lawmakers around him are Representatives Shri Thanedar, Democrat of Michigan who was born in India; Mike Lawler, Republican of New York; Brad Sherman, Democrat of California; and Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina. Modi seems to be enjoying the attention and is not in a rush to leave the chamber -- though his security detail is trying to gently nudge him out.

As Modi makes his way out of the House chamber, he is stopped by members asking him to autograph their printed copies of his remarks.

Alex Travelli

India’s economy is already a star, but Modi wants the attention of American businesses and investors.

NEW DELHI — The state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is full of eye-catching moments — practicing yoga outside the United Nations building in New York and addressing a joint session of Congress — that seem designed to burnish both India’s image on the world stage and his own image at home.

Apart from impressing voters back home and his fellow statesmen, Mr. Modi is hoping to get the attention of American businesses and investors.

India’s expanding economy is already in some ways a star. It displaced Britain as the world’s fifth biggest economy last year, and is on track to outpace both Germany and Japan in the decade ahead. The value of the companies listed on its stock markets are worth $3.3 trillion, more than ever before, and Mr. Modi’s government has tackled some challenges that have long stymied Indian growth, including rickety infrastructure and banks burdened with bad loans.

Foreign investors have taken notice, especially with much of the world’s economy looking shaky. A string of high-tech, high-value companies have flocked to India this year, with Apple and possibly Tesla making it known that they see a big future here.

But there are ominous signs, too. While foreign investment has been pouring in and the government has spent heavily on roads, energy and other public goods, private Indian investment has shrunk in proportion to the whole. And the incomes of average Indians have hardly budged in recent years, with most of the country still dependent on farming and many others working in jobs that barely keep them fed.

Indian and American policymakers and businessmen have been trying to devise ways that the United States could help India meet the moment — through a combination of trade, technology transfer, labor mobility and integration with global supply chains.

India’s trade with the United States is worth about $190 billion now, Atul Keshap, a former American ambassador to New Delhi who is president of the U.S.-India Business Council, said in an online discussion this week. It should soon be worth $500 billion, he argued, on par with the size of the U.S. trade relationships with only a few others: Canada, Mexico, the European Union and China.

The relationship could be boosted by the two countries’ altered relationships with China, not only in geopolitics, but also in civilian business and trade. American companies and political leaders are eyeing India — with its 1.4 billion people, same as China — as the sole country fit to shoulder some of the immense weight that China has carried in the world economy. “It’s a lot easier to invest $100 million in a country with 1.4 billion people than in a country with 40 million people,” said Cate Ambrose, chief executive of the Global Private Capital Association, an industry group focused on emerging markets.

With much of the world’s economy hindered by the war in Ukraine, inflation and other headwinds, the Indian economy’s power increasingly stands out. This week, Airbus, a European airplane-maker, signed deal to sell 500 aircraft to IndiGo, a low-cost Indian carrier founded in 2006. It is the kind of contract that American leaders dream of winning for the U.S. airplane giant Boeing.

Indians’ median incomes may be stagnant, even as gains made by wealthier people have brought the per capita income up to $1,200 a year. But the room for growth makes the country attractive as a consumer market. Last year, for example, 123 million passengers flew between India’s airports. The government’s goal is to reach 1 billion by 2040.

A new emphasis in the U.S.-India relationship is high-value manufacturing, and an initiative on emerging technologies has brought together government agencies from both countries to speed up cooperation on microchips, satellites and artificial intelligence. The White House argues that these projects, which sidestep bilateral trade negotiations, should help foster “resilient supply chains” for both countries.

Damien Cave

One of the things that makes Modi an interesting kind of popular leader in our current global moment might be his optimistic tone. He speaks of positive momentum, success and destiny more than flaws and enemies.

Mujib Mashal

As we wrote in our recent story about his role as a radio host, Modi has many avatars for keeping himself intimately omnipresent across India’s vastness — including that of a poet. He has written poetry in Gujarati, though he was reading a Hindi poem just now.

Congressional addresses often end with poetic language, but not usually poetry. After quoting the poem Amanda Gorman read at President Biden’s inauguration, Modi recited lines in Hindi that he penned himself.

On China, Modi has always been careful to avoid escalating tensions. When tensions at the India-China border escalated to bloody skirmishes, American diplomats were saying Modi’s government was not comfortable with U.S. officials mentioning China by name in statements made out of New Delhi.

A policy proposal from Modi, as he calls for the African Union to get full membership in the G20. (The speech so far has been big on promoting accomplishments but light on articulating demands for change.)

As Peter notes, the omissions of the words “Russia” and “China” show how carefully Modi is choosing his words as he supports the spirit of the U.S. position, while clearly signaling that India is not going to take a side in these geopolitical rivalries.

The technology transfer piece of the defense deal reflects not just improved U.S.-India ties, but also a major shift in how the United States works with allies in the Indo-Pacific. Australia is getting nuclear-powered subs from America. Japan is buying American Tomahawk missiles. It’s all part of a broader effort to balance China’s military growth.

U.S.-India defense relations have had to overcome a history of deep mistrust rooted in both bureaucracies. But it feels like the countries are turning a new page. The American defense secretary and national security adviser were both in New Delhi in the weeks before Modi’s visit to Washington.

India’s ties to Russia stretch decades, and India still relies on Russia for a majority of its military equipment. So India has been careful in calling for peace and dialogue while staying away from condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

In discussing Ukraine, Modi calls for respecting U.N. principles of sovereignty, earning a standing ovation. He also said “we all must do what we can to stop the bloodshed and human suffering.” However, India continues to buy a lot of oil from Russia, engaging in a practice that the United States argues fuels the Russian war machine.

Likewise, when he discusses “the dark clouds of coercion and confrontation” that are “casting their shadow in the Indo-Pacific,” he leaves unstated who might be doing the coercing and confronting, never mentioning the word “China.”

When Modi mentions Ukraine, he shifts to passive construction. “With the Ukraine conflict, war has returned to Europe,” he said, without mentioning the word “Russia.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Reporting from Washington

State Dinners: Who Gets Them, Who Doesn’t and Why They Matter

As President Biden welcomed India’s prime minister to the White House , the two leaders were looking for more than a fine vegetarian meal and a night of glitzy entertainment.

Under the guise of pomp and pageantry, state visits are a chance for presidents to push foreign dignitaries to align with American interests. They can be a way to celebrate old, ironclad alliances . And with high-profile guest lists , multicourse meals and top-flight entertainment, they are much-coveted invites in Washington .

“These are not just dinners,” said Matthew Costello, a senior historian for the White House Historical Association. “There’s a lot more that goes into them in terms of planning, in terms of invitations, and a lot is geopolitics, a lot is foreign policy.”

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower invited Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, to the White House in 1959, he was focused on thawing Cold War tensions after the launch of Sputnik. Before President Barack Obama hosted President Xi Jinping of China, the two countries negotiated for weeks over an arms control accord for cyberspace. President Ulysses S. Grant held the first state dinner for King David Kalakaua of Hawaii to strengthen trade.

The dinners can also provide a window into the regions the United States is prioritizing — and the ones being neglected.

European and Latin American nations have received the most state dinner invitations, while sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian nations have received the fewest, according to a study by the Center for Global Development that tracked 40 years of state visits from the Carter to Obama administrations.

Out of 160 dinners, just 15 were with guests from sub-Saharan Africa, the study found.

“To be a foreign leader and not get the state dinner, you feel snubbed,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. “It’s often the smaller countries in the world who don’t get them, but when you’re dealing with big power players like India, it’s a must.”

The invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was not without controversy. Mr. Biden has made the global struggle between democracy and autocracy a key part of his foreign policy, but Mr. Modi’s government has cracked down on dissent in ways that have raised fears of authoritarianism.

Still, the White House views the world’s most populous nation as a potentially welcome addition to its coalition against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as a crucial player in its growing economic competition with China.

The other nations whose leaders received the official invitation to dine with Mr. Biden — France and South Korea — have also been partners in Mr. Biden’s effort to confront Russia.

The state dinner can sometimes be a means of smoothing over hiccups among allies.

Mr. Biden hosted President Emmanuel Macron of France for the first state visit of his administration, more than a year after the two nations feuded over a deal to provide Australians with nuclear-powered submarines. Mr. Biden invited Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, for a state visit after he canceled a trip there in May because of negotiations over the debt ceiling with congressional Republicans.

“There are multiple times we see presidents using these visits to not just describe immediate concerns, but also to talk through short-term and long-term solutions,” Mr. Costello said.

Domestic politics often hang over the dinner, as well.

Julianna Smoot, Mr. Obama’s social secretary from 2010 to 2011, said she made sure to invite the often-feuding majority and minority leaders of the Senate, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, to state dinners for a rare détente. Governors and mayors who had previously expressed support or campaigned for the president were likely to make the list. And the primary donors of presidential campaigns could expect an invitation, particularly if they had business connections to the visiting nation.

“They didn’t become donors in politics because they were slouches,” Ms. Smoot said. “A lot of them do international work and have an interest” in attending the dinner.

The prospect of strengthening political partnerships overseas and within U.S. borders was usually enough to get a quick response from invitees.

“You’re supposed to say yes,” Ms. Smoot said of responding to the invitations, “unless there’s a death in the family.”

Cheers and laughs for Modi’s hat tip to how well Indian American kids have done in successive national spelling bees.

Mentioning that the United States “has become one of our most important defense partners” gets a standing ovation. Not mentioned: India still buys weapons from Russia.

Liberal Democrats boycott Modi’s speech to Congress.

A half-dozen liberal House Democrats are boycotting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech to Congress on Thursday afternoon, in protest of what they criticize as his abysmal human rights record, particularly toward Muslim minority groups in India.

Four of the protesting members released a statement Thursday condemning the address as “an embarrassing spectacle,” arguing that by giving Mr. Modi such a rare platform, “Congress undermines its ability to be a credible advocate for the rights of religious minorities and journalists around the world.”

“We must never sacrifice human rights at the altar of political expediency,” Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Jamaal Bowman of New York wrote in the joint statement. They called on other members of Congress to join their protest and “stand in solidarity with the communities that have been harmed by Modi and his policies.”

But while other lawmakers have acknowledged and even criticized Mr. Modi for promoting antidemocratic and Hindu nationalist policies, and criticized him for failing to condemn violent assaults against minority groups, they have recoiled at the idea of boycotting a visit from such an economically and strategically important U.S. ally.

“We need to engage,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, a member of Indian descent who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India, arguing that India’s government leaders are “not going to be open and receptive to something that comes off as the West lecturing.”

“I think they’d be much more open to a dialogue as equals about the project of multiracial democracy,” he said.

The Biden administration has been pursuing closer ties with India, particularly as the United States’ standoffs with Russia and China intensify. India’s large economy and population make it an enticing partner for the United States, particularly as Washington tries to reduce its economic reliance on Beijing, and there is a concerted effort to woo New Delhi away from Russia, from which it continues to purchase weapons and oil , in order to help undermine Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

But the protesting lawmakers objected viscerally to the geopolitical justifications for Mr. Modi’s address. Pointing out that Mr. Modi once failed to get a U.S. visa because of his participation in deadly religious riots, they argued he should not be rewarded years later with a diplomatic red carpet.

“A joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Democrat of New York, who is also boycotting Mr. Modi’s speech, wrote in a statement that she tweeted out Wednesday evening. “We should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights records — particularly for individuals whom our own State Department has concluded engaged in systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed communities.”

Sarah Maslin Nir

Indian Americans are divided over Modi’s visit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India stressed inclusivity when he appeared before a yoga class on the lawn of the United Nations in Manhattan on Wednesday, trumpeting the Hindu discipline as an act of “unity.”

But Indian Americans appeared deeply divided about Mr. Modi’s visit.

“To host him for a state dinner and give a semblance of the two democracies — the world’s largest and the world’s oldest — of everything being well and good in both democracies, that is a charade,” said Sunita Viswanath, the executive director for Hindus for Human Rights, an organization founded as a resistance effort to Mr. Modi’s policies.

She spoke while standing in front of the White House at a protest on Thursday, urging President Biden to call out India’s anti-democratic shift, even while he woos its leader.

“If we are friends, the best kind of friend we can be is one that asks difficult questions — and tells the truth,” Ms. Viswanath said while holding a sign that said “real Hindus don’t lynch,” a reference to mob violence against Muslims in India that has surged under Mr. Modi’s regime.

Still others welcomed Mr. Modi’s visit to the United States — some literally: On Tuesday the mayor of Edison, N.J., Sam Joshi, greeted the prime minister personally at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, part of an official welcoming delegation, and later did yoga with him.

In Manhattan, where the yoga session was held, several trucks emblazoned with questions about his human rights records and the hashtag #CrimeMinsterOfIndia drove through Times Square.

Images of the Modi truck at large. pic.twitter.com/q8QEOZZtNj — Aatish Taseer (@AatishTaseer) June 21, 2023

In an interview, Mr. Joshi focused on the bridge-building possibilities of the visit, which the mayor, who is of South Asian descent, said he was asked to join by the president.

“I know that this is a step toward the U.S. and India moving in a better direction,” he said on Thursday from Washington, where he was attending Mr. Modi’s congressional address. “That is the reason why I am here.”

A handful of members of Congress, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York City, pledged to boycott the prime minister’s address to Congress, citing Mr. Modi’s troubled record on religious and press freedom.

“I encourage my colleagues who stand for pluralism, tolerance, and freedom of the press to join me in doing the same,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.

In New York City, three elected officials of South Asian decent called upon their colleagues to denounce the visit to the city.

“Modi is reshaping the nation from a secular democracy into a right-wing Hindu nationalist state,” New York City Council members Shekar Krishnan and Shahana Hanif and New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani wrote in joint statement. “Prime Minister Modi’s oppressive and unjust policies run counter to all of the values that New York City holds dear.”

On Friday, Mr. Modi’s itinerary called for him to speak to about 1,100 Indian Americans in Washington. “There are a large portion of us from all over U.S.A. who wanted to see him on this tour,” said Amitabh V.W. Mittal, the general secretary of the United States Indian Community Foundation, a nonpartisan organization created for the purpose of hosting the diaspora event.

Mr. Mittal dismissed criticism of the prime minister’s policies as unfair. Mr. Modi, he said, has championed innovation in the tech sector, added jobs and pushed to modernize the country’s infrastructure for all Indians regardless of sect.

Mr. Mittal said he welcomed other opinions, and that people of different faiths would be at the event his group was hosting. “Every good leader has good opposition,” Mr. Mittal said. “If he doesn’t have good opposition, that’s not good for democracy.”

What to know about the state of India’s democracy.

As President Biden rolls out the red carpet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, he is embracing a country that is coming into its own on the global stage.

India is the world’s most populous nation, finally emerging from the shadows of its colonial past and the immediate burden of combating hunger and disease, and is now also the fifth-largest economy. It has a young work force, a strong tech industry, a growing consumer market and barely scratched potential as a manufacturing hub.

But all the talk of India’s rise masks a backsliding of its democratic traditions.

Expert opinion on the health of India’s democracy falls on a wide spectrum between outright alarm at an authoritarian turn, and belief that the concern is exaggerated given that India has pulled through such stresses on its constitutional democracy before.

Some democracy watchdogs have expressed worry. The way Mr. Modi has cracked down on dissent and free speech, and hounded his opponents, is often seen as comparable only to the 1970s Emergency, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended democracy. India tops the global list of internet shutdowns. Opposition leaders are frequently raided by investigating agencies and bogged down in court cases.

Other experts, while acknowledging concerns, have said the cause for alarm is overstated. Rahul Verma, a fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, argued in an academic article that India under Mr. Modi was a paradox of sorts, with “democratic erosion in certain areas such as civil liberties and protection of minorities, but deepening of democratic norms in many other areas.” For example, more people — particularly women — are voting and running for office.

What sets apart Mr. Modi’s systematic consolidation of power, much of it achieved not through dramatic power grabs but through more subtle and lasting means, is that it is entrenching Hindu supremacy in India’s constitutionally secular democracy.

Mr. Modi’s outsize influence over the arms of state has created widespread impunity for his right-wing vigilante supporters, who are doing the ground work of turning India into a Hindu-first nation. There is a perpetual sense of combustibility, with the country’s religious minority of more than 200 million non-Hindus, most of them Muslims, often at the receiving end.

Large-scale riots with mass casualties have become rarer than in the recent past, but hate is more easily spread through social media, where Mr. Modi’s party and support base have a dominant presence. Emboldened vigilantes have attacked mosques and churches, hounded interfaith couples and lynched men accused of transporting beef, and viral videos of the violence on social media have created a suffocating constancy to the tension.

When clashes happen, the state often doles out justice in a partisan manner. Police officers are often restrained in their actions against Hindu vigilantes. But the authorities — trailed by news cameras — are increasingly quick to exert swift, collective and extrajudicial punishment , particularly in the form of bulldozing homes, when the perpetrator of a crime is Muslim.

Happymon Jacob, who teaches foreign policy at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, said India had reacted angrily when the United States had raised human rights concerns, “sending a message to the U.S. that it needs to choose between preaching to India or engaging India.”

“I think the U.S. has realized that it would be sacrificing the geopolitical utility of the Indo-U.S. relationship if it decides to castigate India on human rights issues,” he said.

Karan Deep Singh contributed reporting.

A scorecard for Narendra Modi’s India.

After nearly a decade in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brings to Washington a record that has prompted pride and outrage.

Among fans, he is beloved for overseeing record growth, building roads and airports, and expanding access to sanitation, clean water , cooking fuel and digital payment systems. Critics, however, say Mr. Modi and his party have unleashed a dangerous wave of Hindu nationalism, muzzling critics and encouraging violent discrimination against minorities.

Mr. Modi’s supporters and detractors have ample evidence to back up their assessments. And, as is often the case with India, which now has the world’s largest population , a lot can be understood through numbers.

10 to 5: Under the Modi government, India has moved up five places in the global economic rankings, becoming the fifth largest economy in the world. It is projected to have the fastest growth of any major economy this year, continuing a trend that began under Mr. Modi’s predecessor.

74 to 148 : In nine years, according to the government, the number of airports in India has doubled.

382 to 693: The number of medical colleges in India has also soared. In February, the government said its universities could seat nearly 100,000 medical students each year, up from around 50,000 in 2014.

117.2 million : That would be the number of toilets that Mr. Modi says his government has installed under a program for rural sanitation.

8 billion: The transactions that took place on India’s new digital payments system in January alone. The rapid growth of the program , which began under Mr. Modi’s predecessor, has relied in large part on the government’s push to give every citizen a unique identification number, called the Aadhaar, which allows for payments small and large.

4: Governments run by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in four Indian states demolished dozens of properties belonging to Muslims after a series of protests last year. Mr. Modi, who started working with the B.J.P. in the 1970s, has done little if anything to discourage such efforts — or violence against Muslims by Hindu nationalists, or widespread anti-Muslim bias in India’s police forces. An independent study from 2019 found that one in two police officers felt that Muslims were “naturally prone” to crime.

2 million: In the state of Assam in northern India in 2019, two million people were told that they were considered stateless after a mass citizenship check . New York Times reporters interviewed several members of the tribunal making the decisions, and they said they had felt pressured by the government to declare Muslims to be noncitizens.

35: In August 2019, the Modi government stripped constitutional autonomy from India’s only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, according to Human Rights Watch, at least 35 journalists in Kashmir have faced police interrogation, raids, threats, assault, restrictions on movement, or fabricated criminal cases for their reporting.

84: India shut down the internet at least 84 times in 2022, the highest number of any country for the fifth consecutive year. In many cases, the blackouts were targeted to locations with ethnic or religious violence that might undermine the image of a peaceful, prosperous India that Mr. Modi promotes — at home, and now in Washington.

PM Modi made 36 foreign visits in 5 years with objective to foster closer relations: Govt

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Modi’s Messenger to the World

How the diplomat-turned-politician s. jaishankar became the chief executor of india’s assertive foreign policy..

Foreign & Public Diplomacy
Rishi Iyengar

It all began in Beijing. Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when he visited in 2011 to pitch his state as a destination for Chinese investment. As India’s ambassador to China at the time, S. Jaishankar was tasked with helping to facilitate meetings with Chinese Communist Party leaders and officials, companies, and even Indian students there.

The Beijing meeting was the starting point of a close and mutually respectful partnership between Modi and Jaishankar—one that is reshaping not only India’s geopolitics but increasingly the world’s. Jaishankar himself has recounted that first meeting on multiple occasions, including in the preface of his new book, Why Bharat Matters .

Of that defining moment with Modi in the Chinese capital, Jaishankar writes, “My cumulative impression was one of strong nationalism, great purposefulness and deep attention to detail.”

The two men’s stars would rise in tandem.

Jaishankar’s Beijing tenure was followed by a move to Washington in late 2013 as India’s ambassador to the United States. Modi was still persona non grata there; his visa had been revoked in 2005 for his perceived role in enabling communal riots in Gujarat three years earlier. (The U.S. State Department termed Modi’s failure to curb the riots as bearing responsibility for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”) An investigative team appointed by India’s Supreme Court subsequently cleared Modi of any culpability in 2012, and soon after becoming prime minister in 2014, he was welcomed back to the United States. During his visit that September, he even addressed a packed house of Indian diaspora attendees at New York’s Madison Square Garden, an appearance Jaishankar helped facilitate that has since been replicated in arenas around the world and has become a hallmark of Modi’s foreign policy.

Four months later, days before he was due to retire from the foreign service, Jaishankar was elevated by Modi to foreign secretary—India’s top diplomat, who reports to the external affairs minister—somewhat abruptly and controversially , replacing Sujatha Singh several months before her tenure officially ended. It was only the second time a foreign secretary had been removed from the post.

Jaishankar would be at the center of another prominent “second” in India’s foreign-policy history in 2019. Soon after Modi won reelection in a landslide, he appointed Jaishankar to his cabinet as external affairs minister. It was only the second time a foreign service officer had become external affairs minister, crossing the Rubicon from diplomat to politician. Jaishankar became the first foreign secretary to do so, with a brief private-sector sojourn in between as president of global corporate affairs at the conglomerate Tata Sons .

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi on Sept. 6, 2022. Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

“To me, personally, it was a surprise. I had not even thought about it,” Jaishankar said during a meeting with members of the Indian community in Seoul in early March, sitting between an Indian flag and a larger-than-life portrait of himself.

Once he did become a politician, however, Jaishankar went all in, spearheading an Indian foreign policy that has been a marked departure from that of previous governments at least in style, if not necessarily always substance.

That style is confident, assertive, proudly Hindu, and unabashedly nationalist, intended to convey that India is taking its rightful place among the major powers. Jaishankar has become known for publicly sparring with Western counterparts, think tankers, and journalists when India’s positions don’t align with theirs. He advocates principles of “multialignment” and “strategic autonomy,” in which India will be driven by its own national interest.

Jaishankar’s style is confident, assertive, proudly Hindu, and unabashedly nationalist, intended to convey that India is taking its rightful place among the major powers.

He has slammed a BBC documentary on Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots that India banned in early 2023 (“I don’t know if election season has started in India and Delhi or not, but for sure it has started in London and New York”); dismissed global democracy rankings that show India backsliding (“There’s an ideological agenda out there”); and defended India’s neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and its purchases of Russian oil (“Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems”).

All the while, Jaishankar has served as the tip of the spear for an unapologetic India, led by Modi.

Modi and Jaishankar do come from completely different worlds. Jaishankar grew up in New Delhi and studied at two of the Indian capital’s most elite educational institutions, St. Stephen’s College and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The latter, where Jaishankar did a Ph.D. in international relations with a focus on nuclear diplomacy, is named after India’s first prime minister, whom Modi has consistently criticized. Modi’s humble beginnings, by contrast, are a key part of his political persona. He has frequently spoken about his small-town upbringing in Vadnagar, Gujarat, where his family ran a tea shop, before joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu-nationalist organization and the ideological parent of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). And while Modi predominantly speaks in Hindi both at home and abroad, Jaishankar mostly opts for English.

Jaishankar’s worldliness has served Modi’s priorities well. “If you take a look back, Mr. Modi was planning bold things on foreign policy in the second term, so he wanted someone he trusted who could actually do the big moves. I think you could say that has largely paid off,” said C. Raja Mohan, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New Delhi and columnist at Foreign Policy .

Join FP Live for a discussion about the magazine’s India issue on Tuesday, April 16, at 11 a.m. EDT. Subscriber questions are encouraged. Register here .

Jaishankar waits to speak at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on Jan. 29, 2014, during his time as ambassador to the United States. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

On paper, Jaishankar is a natural choice to spearhead a rising India’s foreign policy. His ambassadorships in Beijing and Washington gave him a keen understanding of the two major powers defining global geopolitics today, and they came as part of a four-decade diplomatic career that began in the Indian Embassy in Moscow in the late 1970s and included stints in Japan, Singapore, and the Czech Republic. As joint secretary for the Americas in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, he was also a key negotiator for the country’s landmark civilian nuclear agreement with the United States in 2005.

“He already had the reputation of being a whiz kid because he of course had a legendary pedigree,” said Ashley J. Tellis, the Tata chair for strategic affairs and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Tellis, a former U.S. government advisor and expert on India-U.S. relations, not only sat across from Jaishankar during the nuclear deal negotiations and has known him for decades but also knew his father, K. Subrahmanyam, a former bureaucrat and government advisor who played a key role in establishing India’s nuclear doctrine and is considered one of the country’s foremost strategic thinkers.

Yet Jaishankar’s transition to politics stood out because that’s not how it usually happens in India. External affairs ministers are career politicians and usually have very little actual foreign-policy experience when they take on the role. The call-up from Modi caught many off guard, according to multiple former Indian diplomats who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, though most described it as an inspired choice.

It is a testament to India’s increased global standing and importance , as well as Jaishankar’s easy rapport with his global counterparts, that his blunt talk hasn’t really cost the Modi government important friends. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at last year’s Munich Security Conference that Jaishankar had a “point” with his comments on Europe. In Munich this year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock smiled as Jaishankar, next to them on stage, parried another question about India’s purchases of Russian oil and its selective alignment with Western partners. “Why should it be a problem? If I’m smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me—you shouldn’t be criticizing me,” he said before clarifying that India isn’t “purely unsentimentally transactional.”

At a high level, many of the dynamics currently governing India’s foreign policy pre-date the Modi government. The country’s close diplomatic and military partnership with Russia dates back to the Cold War, while the India-U.S. relationship has been on an upward trajectory across multiple governments since President Bill Clinton’s visit to New Delhi in 2000 ended more than two decades of tenuous relations. Meanwhile, India’s decades-long frenmity with China has ebbed since military clashes on their shared border in 2020 unraveled the bonhomie that Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had established during the former’s first term in office.

For all Jaishankar’s proclamations, “I actually see more continuity than I do change,” said Shivshankar Menon, who served as India’s foreign secretary and national security advisor under Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh. “Whether you call it nonalignment or strategic autonomy or multidirectional policy, on the big things … I don’t see much difference.”

India’s policy toward the Middle East has been one notable departure , with Modi establishing far closer ties with Israel as well as Arab nations in the Gulf—particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—than any of his predecessors, even amid concerns about rising Islamophobia within India. Modi even inaugurated a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi to great fanfare in February, embracing the Emirati president as his “brother” during his visit.

The bigger shifts have been on tenor and tone, with the message that India has changed internally, and those internal changes are what need explaining to the world. “There is certainly a difference in the way this government projects foreign policy compared to previous governments—it’s much more activist,” Menon said. “I think there’s a conscious effort to try and show that India counts in the world, that the world now looks up to it.”

In conveying this message, Jaishankar has thrived.

Lisa Curtis, a former U.S. government official who dealt with Jaishankar during the 2005 nuclear deal negotiations as well as in his time at the Indian Embassy in Washington, said he has acquired a “sharper edge” in recent years but has always been effective at communicating India’s position. “Since he’s so steeped in the issues and so articulate on global matters, that helps India to put forward a good face on the international scene,” said Curtis, now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security. “I think he’s helped India immensely in being accepted as a global power.”

Jaishankar’s pugilistic zeal has also extended to defending Modi’s Hindu-nationalist ideology, including against criticism about its more illiberal elements and the treatment of minorities in India over the past decade, with increased instances of violence against Muslims in particular. “Are there people in any country, including India, who others would regard as extremist? I think it depends on your point of view,” Jaishankar said during the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi in February when asked by an FP reporter how those concerns might impact India’s global standing. “Some of it may be true. Some of it may be politics.”

Jaishankar laid out the Modi government’s position more clearly when asked a somewhat similar question during a discussion at the Royal Over-Seas League in London last November. “People today are less hypocritical about their beliefs, about their traditions, about their culture,” he said. “I would say we are more Indian. We are more authentic.”

While Modi has established himself as a geopolitical glad-hander in his own right, Jaishankar’s global experience and his ability to articulate Modi’s vision on the world stage have made him the perfect interlocutor and representative.

As someone whose entire diplomatic career, by definition, was spent being apolitical, Jaishankar’s politics before he joined Modi’s government remain opaque. Until Modi made him foreign secretary, Jaishankar mostly served under governments led by the main opposition Indian National Congress party.

“The ruling political philosophy among India’s academics and among India’s bureaucracy is a socialist, left-leaning worldview. Jaishankar didn’t ever subscribe to that,” said Indrani Bagchi, the CEO of the Ananta Aspen Centre in New Delhi who previously spent nearly two decades as the diplomatic editor for the Times of India newspaper.

While Modi has established himself as a geopolitical glad-hander in his own right over the past decade—with his zealous, highly symbolic hugs of world leaders often making headlines —Jaishankar’s global experience and his ability to articulate Modi’s vision on the world stage have made him the perfect interlocutor and representative.

As Bagchi put it: “He’s able to explain Modi to the world.”

Jaishankar addresses devotees and well-wishers during Diwali celebrations at Neasden Temple in London on Nov. 12, 2023. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Jaishankar did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story, but the two books he has published since becoming external affairs minister provide a window into his world-view as well as the evolution of India’s foreign policy in the five years he has been in the role.

The works are bookended by two of the world’s largest elections: The first was published in 2020, just over a year after Modi was reelected to a second term and inducted Jaishankar into his cabinet. The second came out early this year, ahead of India’s upcoming national election, in which Modi is expected to cruise to a third term. The titles of Jaishankar’s books themselves are instructive, illustrating a shift in the projection of India to the world: The India Way and Why Bharat Matters . “Bharat” is the traditional Sanskrit name for India, and its use by the Modi government as the country’s official name on some invites to the G-20 summit it hosted last September caused diplomatic ripples, with some critics and political opponents suggesting it was another example of the Modi government’s effort to reshape India in its Hindu-nationalist image . Jaishankar’s riposte was that he would “invite everybody to read” the Indian Constitution, which begins with the words “India, that is Bharat,” and treats both names as official.

Speculation of an “official” name change has not come to pass, though Modi continues to use both interchangeably . India is already referred to as Bharat within the country by its native language speakers, but the two names present another internal contrast that the Modi government has been happy to exploit—in its view, “India” represents a colonial, English-speaking, out-of-touch elite, while “Bharat” represents the real, grassroots, predominantly rural majority of the nation.

The covers of Jaishankar’s two books, The India Way and Why Bharat Matters .

Jaishankar, too, leans into that dichotomy in his second book, referring to “India” almost exclusively through most chapters but pointedly ending each chapter with an invocation of “Bharat”—often only in the last sentence. “That is why India can only rise when it is truly Bharat,” the first chapter concludes. In the chapter on India-China relations, he writes: “It is only when our approach to China is steeped in realism that we will strengthen our image before the world as Bharat.”

Stylistic choices aside, the central argument of Why Bharat Matters is that India must authentically embrace its cultural traditions and reclaim its status as a “civilizational” power—in much the way that China has—rather than remain beholden to a Western-led world order. “India matters because it is Bharat,” Jaishankar writes. He uses one of India’s most famous epics, the Ramayana, as a framework for thinking about that civilizational resurgence. The Hindu epic depicts the victory of the god Ram over the demon king Ravana after he abducted Ram’s wife, Sita, a story that in Hinduism symbolizes the triumph of good over evil.

Jaishankar posits that the Ramayana, in which Ram “sets the norms for personal conduct and promotes good governance,” offers lessons for geopolitics, too. Modi and members of his BJP often invoke Ram in heralding the government’s achievements, and many supporters declare their loyalty to the deity in troubling manifestations of the party’s political project, including during attacks on the country’s Muslims and Christians. Modi’s inauguration of a Ram temple in January in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, considered Ram’s birthplace—on the site of a 16th-century Mughal mosque that was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu nationalists—represented the fulfillment of a key campaign promise.

Jaishankar presents the Ramayana as a lens for Indians to view their global rise and for the world to view India’s rise. Ram’s story is an “account of a rising power that is able to harmonize its particular interests with a commitment to doing global good,” he writes.

In both books, Jaishankar offers a detailed explanation of India’s realpolitik approach, with the most succinct encapsulation coming near the beginning of his first book, The India Way , a compilation of several of his speeches and analyses. India’s priorities in this era of great-power competition and growing multipolarity, he writes, should be to “engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play, draw neighbours in, extend the neighbourhood and expand traditional constituencies of support.”

Jaishankar dedicates a chapter in that first book to another Indian epic, the Mahabharata, which centers on a giant battle between five brothers, the Pandavas, and their cousins, the Kauravas. Jaishankar hails this as “the greatest story ever told” and “the most vivid distillation of Indian thoughts on statecraft.” Today’s India can learn from the Mahabharata’s central lesson of being able to implement difficult policies without being held back by a fear of collateral consequences, Jaishankar writes, albeit doing so responsibly and while retaining the moral high ground.

“Serial violators are given little credit even when they comply, while an occasional disrupter can always justify a deviation,” he writes of the global rules-based order. “Nevertheless, the advantage of being perceived as a rule-abiding and responsible player cannot be underestimated.”

Another lesson from the Mahabharata that Jaishankar draws attention to, which he and Modi have both used to great effect, is the mastery of messaging both at home and abroad. “Where the Pandavas consistently scored over their cousins was the ability to shape and control the narrative,” he writes. “Their ethical positioning was at the heart of a superior branding.”

It is this brand that Jaishankar is attempting to establish for Modi’s new India, or Bharat—a participant on the world stage, rather than just a bystander, that will look out foremost for its own interests but is willing to engage with multiple partners.

“India is better off being liked than just being respected,” he writes.

Jaishankar departs a meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Jan. 4. Prabin Ranabhat/AFP via Getty Images

The take-no-prisoners approach adopted by Jaishankar on the global stage has been immensely popular back home, with hyperbolic compilations of instances when he “ shut down ” or “ destroyed ” Western reporters frequently doing the rounds on social media. This reception indicates his statements may be playing to two galleries at once.

“The constituencies on the inside are now completely convinced that India’s moment has come, that India can pursue its interests without apology and without diffidence,” said Tellis of Carnegie. “I see that external-facing behavior as being shaped very much by the compulsions of internal politics.”

It’s hard to argue that the Modi government’s nationalist persona isn’t popular among the electorate. The BJP won 282 out of 543 seats in the Indian Parliament during the 2014 election, the most by a single party in three decades, bettering that performance with 303 seats in 2019. Opinion polls for the 2024 contest so far indicate the party will match, if not surpass, that performance.

While Jaishankar is now front and center on the global stage and his trajectory is unique in many ways, he’s also part of a wider pattern of Modi bringing more technocrats into his government. The current minister of railways, technology, and communications is a former bureaucrat, while the petroleum and urban affairs minister spent nearly four decades in the diplomatic corps. Modi’s priority, particularly in his second term, has been on finding executors of his policies rather than mere political apparatchiks.

“Modi was looking for wider talent to run the government, to implement his policies,” Mohan said. “Jaishankar is just one part of it. Because he’s the foreign minister, he’s the one exposed to the world, he’s the one who’s speaking up for India at most international forums, so he gets a lot of that visibility both at home and abroad.”

Jaishankar speaks alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington on Sept. 27, 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

It’s also more than just visibility. As the world’s most populous country with the fifth-largest economy, India’s decisions are naturally consequential, and Jaishankar has shepherded the Modi government’s efforts to be at the center of global conversations on issues such as technology, climate change, and collective security. Along with stepping up engagements with the West, the Gulf, and the global south, India has prioritized multilateral forums and partnerships such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (with Australia, Japan, and the United States), I2U2 (with Israel, the UAE, and the United States), and the G-20. And Jaishankar has balanced both sides in each of the two major conflicts roiling the world today—maintaining India’s ties with both Russia and the West amid the war in Ukraine and continuing to call for respect of humanitarian law in Gaza and a two-state solution while condemning terrorism and even reportedly sending Indian-made drones to Israel.

“Bharat also means being a civilizational state rather than just a national polity. … It mandates the influencing of the international agenda and shaping of global narratives.”

Jaishankar outlined his view of India’s rise in a speech at his alma mater JNU in late February. “Bharat also means being a civilizational state rather than just a national polity. It suggests a larger responsibility and contribution, one that is expressed as a first responder, development partner, peacekeeper, bridge builder, global goods contributor, and upholder of rules, norms, and law,” he said. “It mandates the influencing of the international agenda and shaping of global narratives.”

As India gears up for its next landmark national election, scheduled to take place from April to June, questions have begun to swirl around whether Jaishankar will take the final step in his political evolution and run for election to India’s lower house of Parliament, or Lok Sabha. He entered Modi’s cabinet through the Rajya Sabha, or upper house, where lawmakers are elected by state legislators, but the Lok Sabha is where the people of India decide. His plans to run have not yet been confirmed, but his near-universal popularity will likely hold him in good stead. When asked about it, he has repeatedly deflected.

Should he be preparing for a grueling campaign, however, his growing embrace of symbolism steeped in India’s dominant religion is perhaps a natural choice. For a large swath of Indian voters, wearing one’s Hindu identity on one’s sleeve is increasingly welcome. And Modi’s potential political base is enormous, given that 80 percent of India’s population is Hindu.

“Being overtly Hindu is now OK,” Bagchi said. Whether it’s building a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi or the recent groundbreaking on the Ram temple in Ayodhya, “all of that adds to what they see Modi bringing to the table, and Jaishankar is a part of that universe.”

Robbie Gramer contributed reporting for this story.

Rishi Iyengar is a reporter at Foreign Policy . Twitter: @Iyengarish

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India’s defence minister has appeared to confirm that the government carried out extrajudicial killings in neighbouring Pakistan , after a Guardian report on the alleged assassinations.

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List of international prime ministerial trips made by Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Tehran, Iran (May 2016).. As of April 2024, Narendra Modi has made 75 foreign trips, visiting 66 countries including the visits to United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly, to Asian countries, following his neighbourhood first and act east policies.. Map of international trips made by Narendra Modi as Prime Minister
International Visits & Summits
During the visit, Prime Minister attended the National Day programme of Bangladesh on March 26, as the guest of honour. The visit of the Prime Minister to Bangladesh was the first visit to a foreign country since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. PM Modi also prayed at the Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple and visited Orakandi Thakurbari. Visit Page
India's Modi visits Greece, the first visit to the country by an Indian
8 of 20 | . In this photo provided by the Greek President's office, Greece's President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, center right, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Athens, Greece, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023.
List of countries visited by Narendra Modi for the first time ever as
In the last nine years, PM Modi has undertaken over 100 foreign visits, covering 60-plus countries across the world. From his first historic US State visit to addressing the diaspora to photo-ops ...
Explained: 9 years, over a 100 trips. A look at Indian PM Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi's first foreign visit as prime minister was to Bhutan. The visit helped emphasise the importance of India's close ties with its neighbours. As per NarendraModi.in, Modi said that Bhutan was a "natural choice" as his first foreign destination due to the "unique and special relationship" the two countries share.
PM's Visits
Domestic Visits. PM's visit to Bhutan (Mar 22, 2024 - Mar 23, 2024 ) PM's visit to UAE & Qatar (Feb 13, 2024 - Feb 15, 2024 ) PM's visit to Dubai (Nov 30, 2023 - Dec 01, 2023 ) PM's visit to Indonesia (Sep 06, 2023 - Sep 07, 2023 ) PM's visit to South Africa & Greece (Aug 22, 2023 - Aug 26, 2023 ) PM's visit to France & UAE (Jul 13 ...
Interactive
PM Narendra Modi arriving at Brasilia International Airport in Brazil (PTI photo) In the span of last one year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited 18 countries, a majority of which were official state visits and spent close to 55 days abroad. His first foreign destination was the neighbouring Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has remained one of India's closest allies for decades.
Around the world with PM Modi: Track his trips and how much they cost
The PMO website provides details of all foreign visits of Modi. He has visited 45 countries over the course of 119 days - around 10% of his prime ministerial tenure so far. However, data show ...
8 years, over 100 visits: PM Modi's foreign tours in numbers
In 2018 too, PM Modi undertook over 20 foreign visits. However, in 2019 — which was the election year — the number of visits came down to 14. ... PM Modi did not visit a single country ...
Modi's Visits Abroad Help to Build His Image in India
The state visit accorded to Mr. Modi in Washington, which ends on Friday, is perhaps the biggest prize yet in that quest. "It's not just about a fairer bargain abroad," said Ashok Malik, a ...
Why is Indian PM Narendra Modi's Egypt visit significant?
It is Modi's first visit to the country as prime minister and the first by any Indian prime minister since 1997. ... Multiple foreign investors have pulled billions out of Egyptian treasury markets.
PM Modi expected to travel to US this month; here's a look at his
Since 2014, PM Modi has made over 100 trips abroad, visiting at least 60 countries. But the coronavirus pandemic brought all diplomatic travel to a standstill, until early this year, with 2020 becoming the first year since 2014 when Modi didn't visit a foreign country. Here is a look back at all of PM Modi's foreign visits in the last two years
How many countries PM Modi visited this year?
Dec 26, 2023 03:38 PM IST. PM Modi prominent international visits in 2023 included that to United States, France, South Africa and others. Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on foreign visits ...
Details of Foreign/Domestic Visits
Details of Foreign/Domestic Visits of Prime Minister since 26.05.2014. Foreign Visits: Expenditure: The expenses on foreign visits of PM are met from the budget of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Details of Visits: Foreign visits undertaken by PM since 26.05.2014 along with duration and expenses incurred on chartered flights is given below:-. 1.
What to Know About Modi's Visit and U.S.-India Relations
The U.S. is trying to draw India closer. Announcing Mr. Modi's state visit, the White House press secretary said the occasion would celebrate "the warm bonds of family and friendship that link ...
What's behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit?
21 Jun 2023. The administration of United States President Joe Biden is scheduled to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an official visit later this week, as the two countries ...
Explained: The significance of PM Narendra Modi's Europe tour
India and Germany have a 'Strategic Partnership' since May 2000, and it has been strengthened with the launch of the Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) in 2011 at the level of heads of government. India is among a select group of countries with which Germany has such a dialogue mechanism. During Modi's visit, the 6th IGC will take ...
Prime Minister Visits
Prime Minister's visit to South Africa and Greece (August 22-25, 2023) August 18, 2023. Prime Minister's visit to France and UAE (July 13-15, 2023) July 12, 2023. Visit of Prime Minister to United States of America and Egypt (June 20-25, 2023) June 20, 2023. Visit of Prime Minister to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia (May 19-24, 2023)
Modi Begins State Visit, Aims to Cement U.S.-India Ties
U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrive for their meeting during the ...
Modi State Visit Modi Promotes India to Congress After Meeting With Biden
June 22, 2023. In a speech to Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India promoted his nation's development and said the relationship between his country and the United States was important ...
PM Modi made 36 foreign visits in 5 years with objective to foster
As per the reply, there was no foreign visit of the PM between November 15, 2019 and March 26, 2021. Many Countries including India were in the grip of Covid 19 pandemic during this period.
Foreign policy of the Narendra Modi government
Modi's foreign policy is focused on improving relations with neighboring countries in South Asia, engaging the extended neighbourhood of Southeast Asia and the major global powers. In pursuit of this, he has made official visits to Bhutan , Nepal , and Japan within the first 100 days of his government, followed by visits to the United States ...
S. Jaishankar, India's Foreign Minister, Executes Modi's Strong-Willed
At a high level, many of the dynamics currently governing India's foreign policy pre-date the Modi government. The country's close diplomatic and military partnership with Russia dates back to ...
A Hindu Nationalist Foreign Policy: Under Modi, India Is Becoming More
Modi "has been the most popular person not only in India but globally," Shah declared. There is a reason why Shah made a point of mixing foreign relations and domestic policy in his speech. Unlike during past campaigns, India's global role is now a central issue in politics. Today, more Indians care about their country's place in the ...
Myth/Miracle: Dissecting the Modi government's claims
Myth/Miracle: Dissecting the Modi government's claims. How India has fared in the past decade on the foreign policy and economic policy fronts. Read more. 6 Apr 2024. How India has fared in the ...
India appears to confirm extrajudicial killings in Pakistan
Modi, who is running for a third term as prime minister in elections that will begin in two weeks, also alluded to operations abroad in a campaign speech on Thursday, stating that "today's ...
India's Modi questions rival Congress about island ceded to Sri Lanka
India's half-century-old decision to end a territorial dispute with Sri Lanka over a tiny island has become a hot-button election issue, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party accusing the ...
PM Modi stripping dignity of country, democracy: Sonia Gandhi
Kharge also questioned Modi govt's foreign policy, and said China is encroaching and renaming Indian villages and towns, but the PM is thumping his "56-inch chest".
Biden Trumps Modi In Fight for Foreign Investment
Investment intentions in new and futuristic sectors such as AI, data centers, EV and battery, green hydrogen and semiconductors, are rising quickly, Pranjul Bhandari, chief India and Indonesia ...